title: Lack of efficacy of a salience nudge for substituting selection of lower-calorie for higher-calorie milk in the work place.
abstract: Obesity is a major burden on healthcare systems. Simple, cost effective interventions that encourage healthier behaviours are required. The present study evaluated the efficacy of a salience nudge for promoting a change in milk selection from full-cream to low-fat (lower calorie) in the kitchen of a university-based research institute that provided full-cream and low-fat milk free of charge. Milk selection was recorded for 12 weeks (baseline). A sign with the message "Pick me! I am low calorie" was then placed on the low-fat milk and consumption was recorded for a further 12 weeks. During baseline, selection of low-fat milk was greater than selection of full-cream milk (p = 0.001) with no significant milk-type × time interaction (p = 0.12). During the intervention period overall milk selection was not different from baseline (p = 0.22), with low-fat milk consumption remaining greater than full-cream milk selection (p < 0.001) and no significant milk-type × time interaction (p = 0.41). However, sub-analysis of the first two weeks of the intervention period indicated an increase in selection of both milk types (p = 0.03), but with a greater increase in low-fat milk selection (p = 0.01, milk-type × time interaction). However, milk selection then returned towards baseline during the rest of the intervention period. Thus, in the present setting, salience nudging promoted a transient increase in low-fat milk consumption, but also increased selection of full-cream milk, indicating that nudging was not effective in promoting healthier milk choices.
authors.affiliation: Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science, University of South Australia, Adelaide 5000, Australia. Amy.Wilson@MarketingScience.Info.
authors.forename: Amy L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Wilson
authors.affiliation: Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science, University of South Australia, Adelaide 5000, Australia. Svetlana@MarketingScience.Info.
authors.forename: Svetlana
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bogomolova
authors.affiliation: Alliance for Research in Exercise, Nutrition and Activity (ARENA), Sansom Institute for Health Research, University of South Australia, Adelaide 5000, Australia. Jon.Buckley@unisa.edu.au.
authors.forename: Jonathan D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Buckley
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002755:Choice Behavior; D004041:Dietary Fats; D002149:Energy Intake; D005518:Food Preferences; D015438:Health Behavior; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008892:Milk / Q000737:chemistry*; D009765:Obesity; D017132:Workplace
chemical_list: D004041:Dietary Fats
keywords: behavioural economics; milk  selection; nudging; obesity; salience nudge; workplace