Consumers' Preference for Sustainable Food

Can we Prime Sustainable Food Choice? A Mix-methods Study

This study aims to test and compare the effectiveness of three priming interventions on consumers' selection of sustainable foods: priming with environmental benefits, health benefits and co-benefits (environment and health benefits).

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Food Consumption
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Priming intervention

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 1000
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Hong Kong
  • Hong Kong, Hong Kong
    • HKU School of Public Health

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Subjects should be aged 18 years or above
• Hong Kong residents
• Be able to read Chinese

Exclusion Criteria:

• Subjects who have vegan or vegetarian diets
• Subjects who have to follow special diets due to illnesses will be excluded.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Health Services Research
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Single

Number of Arms

4

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: Control message group; Participants will not receive the priming manipulation.
Experimental: Health benefits priming group; Participants will be cueing with health benefits by asking to do a word-search exercise beginning with: "In the following, please choose words/statements that can indicate that having a healthy and sustainable diet can have health benefits, such as..."	Behavioral: Priming intervention; The priming manipulation will be embedded in one discrete choice experiment to test the effect of three priming interventions: priming with health benefits, environment benefits, and co-benefits of having sustainable diets, respectively, on consumers' preference for sustainable foods, and the relative importance of proximal attributes (e.g. taste and price) and distant attributes (e.g., attributes related to environmental sustainability) in determining food choice preference, as well as testing whether the effects of these three priming interventions can be modified by consumers' social orientation values. The cueing manipulation will be achieved by asking participants to complete a word-search exercise.
Experimental: Environmental benefits priming group; Participants will be cueing with environmental benefits by asking to do a word-search exercise beginning with: "In the following, please choose words/statements that can indicate that having a healthy and sustainable diet can have environmental benefits, such as..."	Behavioral: Priming intervention; The priming manipulation will be embedded in one discrete choice experiment to test the effect of three priming interventions: priming with health benefits, environment benefits, and co-benefits of having sustainable diets, respectively, on consumers' preference for sustainable foods, and the relative importance of proximal attributes (e.g. taste and price) and distant attributes (e.g., attributes related to environmental sustainability) in determining food choice preference, as well as testing whether the effects of these three priming interventions can be modified by consumers' social orientation values. The cueing manipulation will be achieved by asking participants to complete a word-search exercise.
Experimental: Environmental and health co-benefits priming group; Participants will be cueing with environmental and health co-benefits by asking to do a word-search exercise beginning with: "In the following, please choose words/statements that can indicate that having a healthy and sustainable diet can have both benefits for health and the environment, such as..."	Behavioral: Priming intervention; The priming manipulation will be embedded in one discrete choice experiment to test the effect of three priming interventions: priming with health benefits, environment benefits, and co-benefits of having sustainable diets, respectively, on consumers' preference for sustainable foods, and the relative importance of proximal attributes (e.g. taste and price) and distant attributes (e.g., attributes related to environmental sustainability) in determining food choice preference, as well as testing whether the effects of these three priming interventions can be modified by consumers' social orientation values. The cueing manipulation will be achieved by asking participants to complete a word-search exercise.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Consumers' preference for choosing sustainable foods measured by Discrete Choice Experiment	Measure name: consumers' food consumption preference; Measure tool: an online discrete choice experiment; Measure units: The frequency of choosing sustainable food	Within 1 day of randomization

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Measure participants' social orientation value using Social Orientation Value Scale	Measure name: Social Orientation Value (SVO); Measure tool: survey questionnaire; Measure units: subjects can slide along a continuum of own-other payoff allocations, measure units should be the times participants choose own or self.	Within 1 day of randomization

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: The University of Hong Kong

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): September 27, 2022
• Primary Completion (Actual): December 31, 2023
• Study Completion (Actual): December 31, 2023

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: June 4, 2021
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 5, 2021
• First Posted (Actual): July 8, 2021

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): January 3, 2024
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: January 1, 2024
• Last Verified: January 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: 201901231sv_a

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: UNDECIDED
• IPD Plan Description: Data will be shared upon reasonable request from PI.

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No