Healthy or not: Influencing attention to bias food choices

Previous work has shown that people are more likely to choose a food item that was cued by an arrow briefly presented before the presentation of two options. This preference for cued over uncued items could be explained by a shift of attention. In the current study, we investigated whether we could nudge people towards making more healthy decisions by manipulating attention using directional cues. First, we created a stimulus set with pictures of Natural and Ultra-Processed Food (NUPF) items, which were rated on several scales, including affective and motivational measures (n = 160; the stimuli and ratings are made freely available and make up the new NUPF stimulus database). Second, we asked a different set of participants (n = 292) to rate these food items with regards to how much they would like to eat each of the shown items. During the following choice phase, directional cues (i.e., an arrow pointing left or right), and neutral cues (arrows pointing left and right) were presented before participants were given the choice between two food items. Even though the cues were not relevant for task performance and could potentially even guide attention towards non-preferred items, participants chose the cued items more often than uncued or neutral items and were faster in doing so. The cues biased participants choices irrespective of healthiness, suggesting that external cues could potentially be employed to direct attention and to promote healthy decision-making.

Automated summary

This study investigated the impact of manipulating attention using directional cues on influencing people's decisions towards healthier choices. The results showed that participants were more likely to choose items that were cued by directional cues, even though the cues were not task-relevant. This biased choice behavior towards cued items was independent of the healthiness of the food items.