title: Exploiting the Spur of the Moment to Enhance Healthy Consumption: Verbal Prompting to Increase Fruit Choices in a Self-Service Restaurant.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  People often have good intentions to eat healthily, but these intentions may get overruled by temporary moments of temptation. The current study examined the effectiveness of "verbal prompting" as a nudge to increase fruit salad sales in a natural setting.
  
  
  METHODS
  A field experiment was conducted in a self-service restaurant during breakfast time. After an initial baseline period, the intervention involved four different prompts suggesting ordering a side dish (i.e. orange juice, fruit salad, pancakes) given by cashiers to visitors. The intervention phase lasted 13 weeks. Cash register and observational data were obtained. In addition, a sample of visitors (N = 393) responded to a survey.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A significant increase in sales of orange juice was observed during the orange juice verbal prompts intervention periods (35-42% of all breakfasts sold) compared to baseline (20% of all breakfasts sold). Similarly, sales of fruit salad (9%) and pancakes (3%) rose to a small but significant extent compared to baseline sales (3% and 1%, respectively). Survey results showed that customers did not feel pressurised into purchasing a side dish.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Together, findings suggest that verbal prompts involving healthy side dishes are a potential useful nudge to implement in other food service settings.
authors.affiliation: Wageningen University, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Ellen
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: van Kleef
authors.affiliation: Wageningen University, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Oriana
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: van den Broek
authors.affiliation: Wageningen University, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Hans C M
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: van Trijp
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001294:Attitude to Health; D062408:Breakfast / Q000523:psychology; D002755:Choice Behavior; D003132:Commerce / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D005518:Food Preferences / Q000523:psychology*; D005638:Fruit; D015438:Health Behavior; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D009426:Netherlands; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D012057:Reinforcement, Verbal; D012147:Restaurants / Q000191:economics; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: choice architecture; fruit consumption; nudge; nudging; suggestive selling; verbal prompting