This result is a setback for those who think that a soft hand alone is enough to encourage people to adopt healthier behaviors. In recent years, the government has paid a lot of attention in all kinds of areas to little psychological pushes, or pushes, as an alternative to regulations. This involves all kinds of things, from putting up signs to help people clean up street litter to using influencers to increase vaccination rates.
But in the fight against obesity, pushes at the supermarket are not effective, conclude researchers from the UMC in Amsterdam in a study commissioned by the Heart Foundation. A downside, because 50 percent of adult Dutch people are overweight. And that usually starts with what they buy in the supermarket. 80 percent of all products are outside the Nutrition Center’s Wheel of Five.
Eye level
The researchers spent a year in twelve supermarkets to see if it had the effect of making healthy products cheaper or putting them in more important places than unhealthy items. “From a marketing perspective, there are places where it is useful to put products down,” says epidemiologist Joreintje Mackenbach, project manager of the Supreme Nudge studio where PhD student Josine Stuber conducted the study. “Supermarkets often place A-marks at eye level or grab height.”
In these places, the researchers, in collaboration with the supermarket chain Coop, have now placed wholemeal products in pasta or breakfast cereals, for example. They also put the vegetables up for sale and set up the shelf at the crates with nuts and other responsible products, instead of the chocolate bars normally available.
It made no difference, says Mackenbach. The ratio of healthy to unhealthy products in the shopping cart has remained roughly the same. This result is surprising, because previous studies have shown that such pushes can make a difference. But this is the first study that has tracked people in real-world conditions for so long.
In other studies, people were exposed to thrusts for a shorter period of time, a supermarket with mostly students as customers or a company canteen, Mackenbach says. “If you expose people to labels or posters for longer, they may get used to the thrusts,” he quotes as one of the explanations for the results found.
Get rid of unhealthy products
Consumers also exchange one healthy product for another. For example, if they first bought two peppers and a zucchini, they buy three peppers and no zucchini as a result of an offer, as well as an equal number of unhealthy products. Mackenbach: “It’s actually not a good idea to fight the abundance of unhealthy products with just pushes.”
Consumer sociologist Hans Dagevos of the University of Wageningen, who is not involved in the research, agrees with this conclusion. ‘This research shows that we shouldn’t focus on pushing. If you want to do something, you have to change the offer and remove the unhealthy products. Incidentally, you should also do this if this research has shown that nudges are really effective. ‘
The Heart Foundation, which financed the research, also asks for it. “The intentions are good, but things are not going well and that is why the government will have to limit the unhealthy area,” says director Hans Snijder. This means that all supermarkets offer a healthier assortment at the same time, so that customers don’t just switch stores if they want to buy unhealthy products.
Epidemiologist Mackenbach, however, doesn’t want to completely throw his elbows in the trash. ‘Complex diseases such as obesity often require a package of measures. For a person subtle thrusts help, for another information. To make sure you reach everyone, you need to do a lot of interventions in parallel. Nudging also has the potential to contribute something. ‘
