2019 Conference

field experiment, food choice, fresh produce, social norms, social pressure

Increasing the number of consumers purchasing fresh produce has potential benefits for public health and retailers. Many Americans are not consuming the recommended amount of fruits and vegetables in their diet. Meanwhile produce shrinkage (the amount of produce received by a retailer but not sold) is a common problem; one way to reduce this is to sell higher volumes of product. Educating consumers about the health benefits of fresh produce may be one way to nudge purchases; another may be the use of social norms. Using insights from behavioral economics, we conduct a framed field experiment with shoppers in a Chicago, IL grocery store to test both types of potential information nudges. Our findings suggest both educational and social pressure information may nudge shoppers to purchase more produce. Providing in-store educational information (on how fresh produce is part of a healthy diet) may result in smaller amounts of produce selection (1 to 2 items). However, providing shoppers with a social pressure message may be more effective at nudging larger amounts (3 or more items) of produce selection. For grocery stores and other direct-to-consumer purchasing venues, displaying social pressure messaging in-store may help sell higher volumes of produce. For consumers, such efforts may result in healthier food selections—often the first step towards healthier diets.