Understanding how gamification influences consumers’ dietary preferences

Abstract

Purpose Nutritional disorders and unhealthy nutrition, which are recognised as the causes of many widespread health problems (overweight, obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, etc.) have emerged as a significant problem that requires resolution. The purpose of this study is to influence dietary preferences and to reduce current health issues by using gamification as a social marketing tool. To this end, the decision-making processes affecting food choices in individuals based on calorific content were evaluated and the effectiveness of gamification in encouraging consumers to make lower-calorie choices was examined. Design/methodology/approach An experimental design was used to determine the effect of gamification on the dietary preferences of consumers. An independent factorial design (between groups) in which multiple variables were tested with different subjects was used to test the factors that were thought to affect the food choices made by the participants from gamified and non-gamified menus. Findings In Study 1, menus (gamified vs non-gamified) and nutritional consciousness (low vs high) had a significant main effect on the total calorie count of the selected foods. In Study 2, menus (gamified with prices vs non-gamified with prices) had a significant main effect on the total calorie count of the selected foods, while nutritional consciousness (low vs high) did not. A significant interaction was observed between menus and nutritional consciousness. Practical implications Gamification can be used as an important publicity tool for promoting public health using different influential factors such as price. Originality/value This study shows that people can change their food preferences positively through gamification. It shows further how people tend to evaluate the price of their food rather than the calorie count when making dietary preferences. Gamification can, therefore, be considered a promising social marketing tool for improving public health.

The Potential of Gamification for Social Sustainability: Meaning and Purposes in Agri-Food Industry

“…This evidence leads the way in considering the relevance of some authors, regarding the theme, in the scientific panorama as pillars in specific matters and their works as a starting point for future research routes. In witness whereof, several authors referred to Deterding S.'s gamification definition [11,12] to identify the concept of design elements to be employed in user engagement strategies [66][67][68][69][70][71][72][73][74][75][76][77][78][79] and the application context of the non-gaming context [29,59,69,73,[80][81][82]. However, this represents a weakness of the research field, due the presence of other definitions capable of providing interesting types of identification of the gamification concept.…”

“…However, this represents a weakness of the research field, due the presence of other definitions capable of providing interesting types of identification of the gamification concept. For example, gamification is understood as a strategy or an approach [59,83,84], an emerging trend [57] or a set of activities or services [67,84,85] that are useful for providing learning, communication and interaction to the user in a fun and engaging atmosphere in order to enhance results and behaviours, providing a better user experience. Moreover, gamification is understood as an integration or supporting tool (i) to foster co-creation processes of, for example, a new kind of healthy food product as well as a form of product advertising [86,87]; (ii) to engage specific users such as consumers, children and farmers [56,[88][89][90][91][92]; (iii) to stimulate food behaviour change [29] and technology usage [55].…”

“…According to SDG 4, agri-food companies are called on to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all; gamification can provide support in ensuring quality education on the role of food in health and wellbeing [78,84]. According to SDG 11, agri-food companies are called on to make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable; gamification can provide support in making communities (such as those of students, families with young children, or more generally consumers) more sensible in terms of sustainable behaviours and can stimulate resilient actions, such as those related to food waste management [56,67,77,82,100,101]. On the other hand, food policy makers could find in this study the inspiration to adopt gamification practices with the aim of implementing social campaigns focused on fostering health and well-belling behaviour among citizens and children or fair behaviours for the distribution of value along the players in the agri-food supply chain.…”

A conceptual framework for transformative gamification services

“…The results of this study showed that the game could lead to increased motivation to take informed actions by creating positive peer pressure (Lee et al , 2013). In the field of diet management, Ögel Aydın and Argan (2021) tested the efficacy of gamification in influencing dietary preferences when ordering food online. They compared gamified menus vs regular non-gamified menus and reported that the use of gamified menus can significantly influence users’ decisions towards choosing healthier foods when ordering online.…”