Consumer Acceptance of Population-Level Intervention Strategies for Healthy Food Choices: The Role of Perceived Effectiveness and Perceived Fairness

Abstract

The present study investigates acceptance of intervention strategies for low-calorie snack choices that vary regarding the effect they have on consumers’ freedom of choice (providing information, guiding choice through (dis)incentives, and restricting choice). We examine the mediating effects of perceived effectiveness and perceived fairness, and the moderating effects of barriers to choose low-calorie snacks and perceived responsibility for food choice. Data was collected through an online survey, involving three waves that were completed over a seven week timespan. Information was collected on barriers and perceived responsibility, and evaluations of a total of 128 intervention strategies with varying levels of intrusiveness that were further systematically varied in terms of source, location, approach/avoidance, type, and severity. A total of 1173 respondents completed all three waves. We found that the effect of intervention intrusiveness on acceptance was mediated by the perceived personal- and societal effectiveness, and the perceived fairness of interventions. For barriers and perceived responsibility, only main effects on intervention-specific beliefs were found. Government interventions were accepted less than interventions by food manufacturers. In conclusion, the present study shows that acceptance of interventions depends on perceptions of personal- and societal effectiveness and fairness, thereby providing novel starting points for increasing acceptance of both existing and new food choice interventions.

Designing Policy Mixes for Resource Efficiency: The Role of Public Acceptability

“…Further recommendations of relevance may be drawn from parallel literature in neighbouring fields such as health including, for example, discussion of the perceived effectiveness and acceptability of taxes on alcohol and sugared products [73][74][75].…”

Consumer acceptance of intervention strategies for healthy food choices

“…The perceived fairness, on the other hand, refers to the extent to which people perceive interventions to be a fair way of stimulating healthy food choices. Bos et al (2015a) conclude that across different levels of intrusiveness perceptions of personal and societal effectiveness only differ marginally. When looking at the perceived fairness, however, the more intrusive interventions become, the less they are perceived as fair.…”

“…Additionally, all the products were priced €0.75, which is similar to the selling prices of other vending machines on the university campus. The interventions used in the experimental conditions were chosen based on earlier research by Bos et al (2015a), where they were identified as less accepted interventions within their intervention type.…”

“…Research on the cognitive process underlying acceptance of food choice interventions indicates that the relation between intervention intrusiveness and acceptance is mediated by two intervention-specific beliefs: the perceived effectiveness and the perceived fairness (Bos, Van der Lans, Van Rijnsoever, & Van Trijp, 2015a). The perceived effectiveness refers to whether people think interventions will be successful in stimulating healthy food choices, thereby differentiating between effectiveness for themselves and for society as a whole.…”

“…The present study implements four intervention types from the Nuffield intervention ladder (2007) that differ regarding the level of intrusiveness; this enables gaining a better 114 understanding of the effect of intrusiveness on intervention effectiveness. Second, intervention evaluations often have been researched in terms of hypothetical policies (Bos et al, 2015a), in which direct consequences of the interventions are not experienced. Other papers mostly assess evaluations of existing policies using surveys (Diepeveen et al, 2013), in which outside influences cannot be controlled.…”