Using visual stimuli to promote healthy snack choices among children

Juan Miguel Benito-Ostolaza, Rebeca Echávarri, Ariadna Garcia-Prado and Nuria Oses-Eraso
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Juan Miguel Benito Ostolaza

Social Science & Medicine, 2021, vol. 270, issue C

Abstract: Most interventions against obesity use information to persuade people to change their behavior, with moderate results. Because eating involves automatic routines, new approaches have emerged appealing to non-reflective cognitive processes. Through a randomized controlled trial, we evaluated the impact of visual stimuli (positive and negative) on children's snack-choices at school. Results showed that the negative stimulus had no effect, while the positive stimulus increased the probability among girls of choosing a healthy snack. We also found that children with excess weight had a larger baseline probability of choosing the healthy snack than those without. We conclude that happy emojis, used to nudge non-reflective processes, can steer children towards healthy choices.

Keywords: Child obesity; Visual stimuli; Randomized controlled trial (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I12 I18 I20 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:socmed:v:270:y:2021:i:c:s0277953620308066

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DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.113587

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