Exploiting the Spur of the Moment to Enhance Healthy Consumption: Verbal Prompting to Increase Fruit Choices in a Self-Service Restaurant

BackgroundPeople 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. MethodsA 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 13weeks. Cash register and observational data were obtained. In addition, a sample of visitors (N=393) responded to a survey. ResultsA 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. ConclusionTogether, findings suggest that verbal prompts involving healthy side dishes are a potential useful nudge to implement in other food service settings.