Goal-directed visual attention drives health goal priming: An eye-tracking experiment.

Abstract

Objective: Several lab and field experiments have shown that goal priming interventions can be highly effective in promoting healthy food choices. Less is known, however, about the mechanisms by which goal priming affects food choice. This experiment tested the hypothesis that goal priming affects food choices through changes in visual attention.Specifically, it was hypothesized that priming with the dieting goal steers attention towards goal-relevant, low energy food products, which in turn increases the likelihood of choosing these products. Methods:In this eye-tracking experiment, 125 participants chose between high and low energy food products in a realistic online supermarket task while their eye movements were recorded with an eye-tracker. One group was primed with a health and dieting goal, a second group was exposed to a control prime, and a third group was exposed to no prime at all. Results:The health goal prime increased low energy food choices and decreased high energy food choices. Furthermore, the health goal prime resulted in proportionally longer total dwell times on low energy food products, and this effect mediated the goal priming effect on choices. Conclusions:The findings suggest that the effect of priming on consumer choice may originate from an increase in attention for prime-congruent items. This study supports the effectiveness of health goal priming interventions in promoting healthy eating and opens up directions for research on other behavioral interventions that steer attention towards healthy foods.

Pleasure or Health? The Role of Mental Simulation in Desire and Food Choices

“…They found that attention (measured with a visual probe task) towards high-calorie foods was attenuated only in participants who scored high in the level of eating restraint [37]. Similar research has shown that a health prime resulted in longer fixation time on low energy foods, also increased low-calorie food choices, and decreased high-calorie food choices [34].…”

“…It has been suggested that a determinant of choice is the attention that is assigned to certain attributes of food [7,33], and that attention can be manipulated through priming [34] or induction of mindsets [35]. A functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study showed that non-dieters made healthier choices when the attentional focus was directed to the health aspects of food, suggesting that mental simulations (comparable to the studies in mindset induction), specifically outcome simulation, may lead to healthier decisions because an individual's attention is directed towards longer-term features.…”

Beyond Self-Report: A Review of Physiological and Neuroscientific Methods to Investigate Consumer Behavior

“…Eye tracking can also be implemented to study the processes underlying various relevant effects in consumer science such as consumers’ preferences, judgment and decision making, or goal priming. For instance, a recent study by van der Laan et al (2017) investigated how the priming of health-related motivations impacts consumers’ food choices. In this study, participants chose between high and low energy food products in a realistic online supermarket task while their eye movements were recorded with an eye-tracker.…”

Goal activation for sustainable consumer choices: A comparative study of Denmark and Brazil

“…People are particularly sensitive to information and consequences related to the goal that is strongest in the situation. Therefore, the goal that "frames" the situation also affects their evaluation of alternatives and the choices they make (van der Laan, Papies, Hooge, & Smeets, 2017). For example, research that will be reviewed below suggests that people may focus primarily on environmental benefits of energy saving in some and on financial benefits in other situations, depending on whether an environmental (i.e., normative) or a financial (i.e., gain) goal is activated in the situation (Spence, Leygue, Bedwell, & O'Malley, 2014).…”