Subtle placement of healthy drinks in Instagram photos influences Australians to consume nutritious drinks to combat the negative health effects of sugary options, new study finds is not effective for
A psychology researcher at Flinders University says reducing sugar intake is a priority, and the World Health Organization says sugar-sweetened beverages are the leading cause of excess sugar consumption globally. responsible for 50% of the excess sugar intake in Australia.
Researchers developed two behavioral experiments to investigate the potential benefits of placing images containing water or soft drinks in non-beverage-related Instagram-style ad images.
“In our experiments, we explored whether subtly incorporating beverages into Instagram images could elicit choices from a vending machine-style visual display. We either put a glass of water or a cola in the ad image, or we didn’t put a drink in it,” said Enola Kay, principal investigator and PhD candidate at the College of Education, Psychology and Social Work. .
Nudges refer to a variety of subtle, unobtrusive tools designed to act relatively unconsciously and to gently guide action, with the goal of making the desired option the easiest or default choice. terminology.
“Several studies have found that, for example, putting healthy foods on the checkout line or rearranging supermarket shelves to make healthier foods more prominent can increase healthy food purchases. They’re still available, but healthier options are more obvious and accessible, so they’re more likely to be chosen.”
Researchers found that placing images of healthy drinks in the background of Instagram photos was not an effective way to boost positive consumption behavior.
But when they made the drinks more obvious and a little more obvious, incorporating images of soft drinks in the background of Instagram images could encourage a little more drink choices than food choices, but healthier. Incorporating typical water images still has little effect.
“The results of the study show that incorporating drink primes into the background of Instagram-style images can be an effective means of driving drink-over-food selection from visual indications.” Enola Kay says. .
“It seems that fine-tuning healthier drink choices is more difficult than fine-tuning healthier food consumption behaviors. It’s important to find effective ways to encourage healthy drink choices.”
As a result, we may instead need a more obvious approach to overcome the habitual nature of our choices.
“Food and drink choices were apparently habitual in nature, and participants in both experiments were more likely to consume and choose what they liked on a regular basis. It can make it harder to fine-tune healthier drink and food choices because it requires overriding the habitual nature of
“Additionally, unhealthy foods and drinks are far more available and frequently advertised than healthier alternatives, making them less familiar to consumers.”
“We know that people are naturally drawn to foods that are high in sugar and fat because they are more rewarding.”
The research publication, “Instagram-based priming for fine-tuning your drink choices: subtlety is not the answer,” is by Enola Kay, Professor Eva Kemps, Associate Professor Ivanka Pritchard, and Professor Marika Tigeman .