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Field
Trial Title
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Before
Can Attribution Bias Improve Preferences for Healthy Snacks? Evidence from a Neuroeconomic Study
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After
Can Attribution Bias Improve Preferences for Healthy Drinks? Evidence from a Neuroeconomic Study
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Field
Abstract
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Before
Diet-related chronic diseases impose substantial health and economic costs worldwide, making it critical to understand the mechanisms that drive persistent unhealthy food consumption. Traditional approaches to addressing this challenge focused on hard-end (e.g., taxes, subsidies, bans) and soft-end (e.g., nudges) measures to influence consumer decisions. However, these measures fail to account for a critical root cause of unhealthy food consumption: the indulgent and rewarding experience gained from consuming unhealthy foods. It is therefore important to account for consumption experience and memory when designing nudges or interventions to steer consumers to healthy food choices. This study fills this gap by utilizing attribution bias to examine how induced positive consumption experience with a healthy food influences future preferences. A neuroeconomic approach is adopted to investigate both neurophysiological and behavioral indicators of preference.
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After
Diet-related chronic diseases impose substantial health and economic costs worldwide, making it critical to understand the mechanisms that drive persistent unhealthy food consumption. Traditional approaches to addressing this challenge focused on hard-end (e.g., taxes, subsidies, bans) and soft-end (e.g., nudges) measures to influence consumer decisions. However, these measures fail to account for a critical root cause of unhealthy food consumption: the indulgent and rewarding experience gained from consuming unhealthy foods. It is therefore important to account for consumption experience and memory when designing nudges or interventions to steer consumers to healthy food choices. This study fills this gap by utilizing attribution bias to examine how an induced positive consumption experience with a healthy carbonated drink in the past influences current preferences. A neuroeconomic approach is adopted to investigate both neurophysiological and behavioral indicators of preference.
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Trial Start Date
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Before
March 01, 2026
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After
June 15, 2026
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Trial End Date
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Before
June 01, 2026
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After
August 15, 2026
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Last Published
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Before
February 18, 2026 06:00 AM
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After
July 14, 2026 09:58 AM
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Intervention Start Date
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Before
March 01, 2026
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After
June 15, 2026
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Intervention End Date
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Before
June 01, 2026
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After
August 15, 2026
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Experimental Design (Public)
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Before
The experiment is conducted across two days. On the first day, subjects will consume a healthy snack under a control or treatment condition. On day two, they will report their preferences by answering survey questions and completing a BDM task. Neurophysiological indicators of preference will also be collected as subjects evaluate the healthy food product in the BDM task and during their participation in a cue exposure task.
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After
The experiment is conducted across two days. On the first day, subjects will consume a healthy drink under a control or treatment condition. On day two, they will report their preferences by answering survey questions and completing a BDM task. Neurophysiological indicators of preference will also be collected as subjects evaluate the healthy drink product in the BDM task and during their participation in a cue exposure task.
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Field
Intervention (Hidden)
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Before
The intervention aims to exogenously manipulate subjects' hunger level prior to consumption of a target snack, with the aim to vary consumption experience across treatments. Participants will be asked to fast for five hours prior to the experiment. They will then be randomly assigned to either the treatment or control group using computer-based randomization software. The treatment group will remain hungry, while the control group will receive a neutral snack (e.g., Ritz biscuits) to offset their hunger. Following hunger manipulation, both groups will be provided with a healthy food snack (e.g., Baked chips) to consume, after which they will rate their consumption experience. The treatment group is expected to report higher ratings since they consume the snack under an arousal state (hunger), resulting in a better consumption experience than subjects in the control, who are satiated before consuming the healthy snack.
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After
The intervention aims to exogenously manipulate subjects' thirst level prior to consumption of a target carbonated drink, with the aim to vary consumption experience across treatments. Participants will be asked to refrain from drinking water or any liquids for five hours prior to the experiment. They will then be randomly assigned to either the treatment or control group using computer-based randomization software. The treatment group will remain thirsty, while the control group will receive a 500 ml bottle of water to offset their thirst. Following thirst manipulation, both groups will be provided with a healthy carbonated drink (e.g., Poppi drink) to consume, after which they will rate their consumption experience. The treatment group is expected to report higher ratings since they consume the drink under an arousal state (thirst), resulting in a better consumption experience than subjects in the control group, who are hydrated before consuming the healthy drink.
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Field
Did you obtain IRB approval for this study?
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Before
No
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After
Yes
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Field
Secondary Outcomes (End Points)
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Before
Age, gender, ethnicity, income, education, exercise frequency and intensity, duration since last meal, current appetite, number of meals and snacks per day, expected time until next meal, consumption experience.
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After
Age, gender, ethnicity, income, education, exercise frequency and intensity, duration since last glass of water, current thirst level, number of glasses of water and any other liquids per day, expected time until next glass of water, and consumption experience.
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