Show me the labels: Using pre-nudges to reduce calorie information avoidance

Tabaré Capitán, Linda Thunstrom, Klaas van 't Veld, Jonas Nordström and Jason F. Shogren

No vy6af, SocArXiv from Center for Open Science

Abstract: Calorie labeling is a popular policy to address the obesity epidemic, but it has had little empirical success. Under the premise that willful avoidance of information plays a role in this result, we propose a novel approach—pre-nudges—to make consumers more receptive to calorie information. Unlike nudges, which are used to directly influence a choice, pre-nudges are used to directly influence how consumers react to the nudge itself (the calorie label). In line with predictions from our theoretical analysis, we test two pre-nudges in the context of menu labeling: one aims to increase self-efficacy, and the other one highlights the long-term health risks of overeating. In a large-scale laboratory experiment, we find that both pre-nudges reduce calorie information avoidance. Overall, our paper suggests a possible role for pre-nudges in addressing the obesity epidemic—one of the largest public health issues globally—and illustrates the potential usefulness of pre-nudges more generally

Date: 2024-10-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp, nep-hea and nep-nud
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:osf:socarx:vy6af

DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/vy6af

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