Appealing dish names to nudge diners to more sustainable food choices: a quasi-experimental study
Abstract Background Promoting plant-rich diets, i.e., diets with significantly reduced amounts of animal products, including vegan and vegetarian, is a promising strategy to help address the dual environmental and health crises that we currently face. Appealing dish names could boost interest in pla...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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BMC
2022-11-01
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| Series: | BMC Public Health |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-14683-8 |
| _version_ | 1811190217760047104 |
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| author | Anna Gavrieli Sophie Attwood Jonathan Wise Eleanor Putnam-Farr Paul Stillman Scott Giambastiani Jane Upritchard Chavanne Hanson Michiel Bakker |
| author_facet | Anna Gavrieli Sophie Attwood Jonathan Wise Eleanor Putnam-Farr Paul Stillman Scott Giambastiani Jane Upritchard Chavanne Hanson Michiel Bakker |
| author_sort | Anna Gavrieli |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Background Promoting plant-rich diets, i.e., diets with significantly reduced amounts of animal products, including vegan and vegetarian, is a promising strategy to help address the dual environmental and health crises that we currently face. Appealing dish names could boost interest in plant-rich dishes by attracting diners’ attention to them. In this study, a systematic approach to naming plant-rich dishes with appealing descriptors was tested with a quasi-experimental design in four workplace, self-service, buffet-style cafeterias in Chicago, Sydney, São Paulo and Singapore. Methods Three different plant-rich dishes were tested at each site. Appealing names were generated systematically through a workshop and emphasized the dish ingredients, origin, flavor and/or the eating experience. Each test dish appeared once in a four-week menu cycle where menu options changed on a daily basis. The cycle was then repeated four times (six times in Chicago) with the total number of showings for each dish to be four (six in Chicago). The dish names alternated between basic and appealing across dish repetitions. For each dish, the food taken per plate was estimated by weighing the overall food taken and dividing it by the plate count in the cafeteria. Data was analysed as percentage change from baseline (i.e., the first showing of each dish that always had a basic name) with linear mixed effects analysis using the lme4 package in R. Results Overall, appealing dish names significantly increased the amount of food taken per plate by 43.9% relative to baseline compared to basic dish names (54.5% vs. 10.6% increase for appealing vs. basic names, respectively, p = .002). This increase corresponded to a 7% increase in actual grams of food taken per plate. Secondary analysis showed that the effect was site-specific to English-speaking countries only and that there was no substitution effect between plant-rich and meat dishes. Conclusions The study tested an approach to creating appealing dish names in a systematic way and indicates that, in some settings, appealing dish titles are a relatively easy, scalable, cost-effective strategy that the food services sector can adopt to shift food choices towards more plant-rich, sustainable ones. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-11T14:47:39Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-ee16220bc70b4e5087dea4996ab1cf55 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1471-2458 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-11T14:47:39Z |
| publishDate | 2022-11-01 |
| publisher | BMC |
| record_format | Article |
| series | BMC Public Health |
| spelling | doaj.art-ee16220bc70b4e5087dea4996ab1cf552022-12-22T04:17:35ZengBMCBMC Public Health1471-24582022-11-0122111210.1186/s12889-022-14683-8Appealing dish names to nudge diners to more sustainable food choices: a quasi-experimental studyAnna Gavrieli0Sophie Attwood1Jonathan Wise2Eleanor Putnam-Farr3Paul Stillman4Scott Giambastiani5Jane Upritchard6Chavanne Hanson7Michiel Bakker8Compass GroupBetter Buying Lab, World Resources InstituteBetter Buying Lab, World Resources InstituteJones Graduate School of Business, Rice UniversityYale Center for Customer Insights, Yale School of Management, Yale UniversityGoogle LLCCompass GroupGoogle LLCGoogle LLCAbstract Background Promoting plant-rich diets, i.e., diets with significantly reduced amounts of animal products, including vegan and vegetarian, is a promising strategy to help address the dual environmental and health crises that we currently face. Appealing dish names could boost interest in plant-rich dishes by attracting diners’ attention to them. In this study, a systematic approach to naming plant-rich dishes with appealing descriptors was tested with a quasi-experimental design in four workplace, self-service, buffet-style cafeterias in Chicago, Sydney, São Paulo and Singapore. Methods Three different plant-rich dishes were tested at each site. Appealing names were generated systematically through a workshop and emphasized the dish ingredients, origin, flavor and/or the eating experience. Each test dish appeared once in a four-week menu cycle where menu options changed on a daily basis. The cycle was then repeated four times (six times in Chicago) with the total number of showings for each dish to be four (six in Chicago). The dish names alternated between basic and appealing across dish repetitions. For each dish, the food taken per plate was estimated by weighing the overall food taken and dividing it by the plate count in the cafeteria. Data was analysed as percentage change from baseline (i.e., the first showing of each dish that always had a basic name) with linear mixed effects analysis using the lme4 package in R. Results Overall, appealing dish names significantly increased the amount of food taken per plate by 43.9% relative to baseline compared to basic dish names (54.5% vs. 10.6% increase for appealing vs. basic names, respectively, p = .002). This increase corresponded to a 7% increase in actual grams of food taken per plate. Secondary analysis showed that the effect was site-specific to English-speaking countries only and that there was no substitution effect between plant-rich and meat dishes. Conclusions The study tested an approach to creating appealing dish names in a systematic way and indicates that, in some settings, appealing dish titles are a relatively easy, scalable, cost-effective strategy that the food services sector can adopt to shift food choices towards more plant-rich, sustainable ones.https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-14683-8Plant-rich dietsSustainable food choicesDish titlesLanguageFood serviceClimate change |
| spellingShingle | Anna Gavrieli Sophie Attwood Jonathan Wise Eleanor Putnam-Farr Paul Stillman Scott Giambastiani Jane Upritchard Chavanne Hanson Michiel Bakker Appealing dish names to nudge diners to more sustainable food choices: a quasi-experimental study BMC Public Health Plant-rich diets Sustainable food choices Dish titles Language Food service Climate change |
| title | Appealing dish names to nudge diners to more sustainable food choices: a quasi-experimental study |
| title_full | Appealing dish names to nudge diners to more sustainable food choices: a quasi-experimental study |
| title_fullStr | Appealing dish names to nudge diners to more sustainable food choices: a quasi-experimental study |
| title_full_unstemmed | Appealing dish names to nudge diners to more sustainable food choices: a quasi-experimental study |
| title_short | Appealing dish names to nudge diners to more sustainable food choices: a quasi-experimental study |
| title_sort | appealing dish names to nudge diners to more sustainable food choices a quasi experimental study |
| topic | Plant-rich diets Sustainable food choices Dish titles Language Food service Climate change |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-14683-8 |
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