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. 2020 Nov 13;12(11):3487.
doi: 10.3390/nu12113487.

Point-of-Decision Prompts Increase Dietary Fiber Content of Consumers' Food Choices in an Online Grocery Shopping Simulation

Kristina Arslain  1 , Christopher R Gustafson  2 , Devin J Rose  1   3
Affiliations

Point-of-Decision Prompts Increase Dietary Fiber Content of Consumers' Food Choices in an Online Grocery Shopping Simulation

Kristina Arslain et al. Nutrients. .

Abstract

Only 5% of Americans consume the recommended amount of dietary fiber. In an online simulated shopping experiment, we examined whether a fiber-focused point-of-decision prompt (PDP) would influence consumers to choose food products that were higher in this important nutrient. We hypothesized that participants exposed to the dietary fiber PDP would choose products with more dietary fiber/serving than those who were not exposed to the PDP. The experiment was completed by 753 participants. Participants were randomly assigned to a condition in which they were not exposed to a PDP (the no-PDP condition), a personalized PDP, or PDP without personalization. Choices in the two PDP conditions were not significantly different. Therefore, the PDP conditions were pooled together into one condition and compared with control participants that did not receive the fiber-focused PDP. Across the three product categories, participants in the PDP condition chose products that had a greater amount of dietary fiber/serving (cereal: 22% increase; bread: 22% increase; crackers: 26% increase; p < 0.01) and products that had a greater healthiness rating (cereals (odds ratio (OR): 1.45, 95% confidence interval (95% CI): (1.10, 1.92)), bread (OR: 1.44, 95% CI: (1.09, 1.91)), and crackers (OR: 1.66, 95% CI: (1.25, 2.21)). Overall, the fiber PDP influenced participants to choose healthier products that contained greater amounts of dietary fiber.

Keywords: diet quality; fiber; food choice; nutrition information; online grocery store; point-of-decision prompt.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Point-of-decision prompts (PDP) with (a) and without (b) personalization that participants in the PDP conditions viewed before beginning the shopping task. The authors developed the figures using the graphic design website Canva (www.canva.com) [31].
Figure 2
Figure 2
Screenshot of the online grocery shopping experience for a large grocery store chain. As highlighted by the red boxes, shoppers are immediately able to refine the product options and limit the choices they want to consider.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Image of how the cereal choice options appeared to the participant. Under each product option, the calorie, fat, sodium, fiber, and sugar content per serving along with the product price was provided.
Figure 4
Figure 4
The dietary fiber content of product choices made by participants in P-PDP and no-PDP conditions. Error bars represent the 95% confidence interval around the mean. The analyses included only those subjects that made a product choice; 24 (3.2%), 19 (2.5%), and 18 (2.4%) participants who had selected “none of these” in the cereal, bread, and cracker models were omitted prior to the analyses. This left n = 729 cereal choices, n = 734 bread choices, and n = 735 cracker choices. ** p < 0.01. Notes: no-PDP = participants were not exposed to a prompt); P-PDP = pooled prompt condition.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Mean nutrient content of products by participants in the P-PDP and no-PDP conditions. (a) Calories; (b) fat; (c) sodium; (d) sugar. Error bars represent the 95% confidence interval around the mean; p-values compare significant differences between the mean nutrition content of product choices made by the P-PDP and the no-PDP condition (t-test). ** p < 0.01.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Mean nutrient content of products by participants in the P-PDP and no-PDP conditions. (a) Calories; (b) fat; (c) sodium; (d) sugar. Error bars represent the 95% confidence interval around the mean; p-values compare significant differences between the mean nutrition content of product choices made by the P-PDP and the no-PDP condition (t-test). ** p < 0.01.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Odds ratios for the influence of a PDP on the healthiness of choices, represented by a product’s Guiding Stars rating with 95% confidence intervals. ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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