Personalised digital nudges for healthy food choice
The NudgeME project is a newly established public private partnership between Tilburg University and mobile app company Nakko bv. that focusses on personalized digital nudges for healthy food choice in a retail application. In this project, empirical, ethical and design perspectives on personalised digital nudging techniques are assessed.
Healthy food choices can aid in both the prevention and the curation of chronic diseases like Diabetes Type 2. First, healthy eating contributes to the prevention of obesity, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and diabetes. Second, as changing from unhealthy to healthy eating can reverse diabetes, innovations stimulating healthy eating can greatly reduce disease burden and associated healthcare costs. Currently, supermarkets are designed such that they stimulate people more towards unhealthy than healthy food choices, therefore innovations are needed that support individuals in making healthier food choices in retail environments.
Technological developments in retail applications allow providing nudges directly (‘Just-In-Time’) in response to in-store behaviour and personalised to the consumer. In the NudgeMe project we have assessed if these personalized digital nudges are more effective than generic nudges and we assess the mechanisms through which personalisation may amplify nudging effects. Further, a nuanced ethical framework for personalised digital nudges in the field of health promotion was developed. Lastly, the technological challenges and opportunities of personalisation in mobile technology and its interaction with the physical choice environment, i.e., the supermarket, were determined.
The main conclusions of the project were that 'Just-In-Time' nudges, regardless of personalization, are effective in encouraging healthier food choices within an online supermarket app. However, the impact of personalization—based on food motivation and information processing style—was minimal and inconsistent, observed mainly in younger, healthier adults rather than type 2 diabetes patients. Personalized nudging should therefore be evaluated ethically on a case-by-case basis, considering factors like the potential manipulativeness of the nudges. Overall, the findings offer valuable insights into designing supportive, preventive environments that empower consumers to make healthier food choices.
