"Expert persuasion" can decrease Willingness to Pay for sugar-containing food

FRONTIERS IN NUTRITION. 2022. Vol. 9. Article 926875.

Ntoumanis I., Panidi K., Yaroslava Grebenschikova, Anna N. Shestakova, Kosonogov V., Iiro P. Jääskeläinen, Kadieva D., Sofia Baran, Klucharev V.

Recent studies have revealed types of eating nudges that can steer consumers
towards choosing healthier options. However, most of the previously studied
interventions target individual decisions and are not directed to changing consumers’
underlying perception of unhealthy food. Here, we investigate how a healthy eating
call - first-person narrative by a health expert - affects individuals’ willingness to pay
(WTP) for sugar-free and sugar-containing food products. Participants performed two
blocks of a bidding task, in which they had to bid on sweets labeled either as “sugar-free” or as “sugar-containing”. In-between the two blocks, half of the participants
listened to a narrative by a dietary specialist emphasizing the health risks of sugar
consumption, whereas the remaining participants listened to a control narrative
irrelevant to food choices. We demonstrate that the health expert’s narrative decreased
individuals’ WTP for sugar-containing food, but did not modulate their WTP for sugar-free food. Overall, our findings confirm that consumers may conform to healthy eating
calls by rather devaluating unhealthy food products than by increasing the value of
healthy ones. This paves the way for an avenue of innovative marketing strategies to
support individuals in their food choices.

Keywords: decision-making, willingness to pay

Publication based on the results of: Влияние речи и кросс-культурного контекста на принятие решений. Мультимодальное нейрокартирование с использованием экологически валидных стимулов как новый инструмент исследований социального познания (2021)