An interventional study of Environmental nudges in Healthy Diet, sponsored by University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Completed at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 25 Years, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2024-01-03.
Sponsored by University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill · Not applicable, Interventional, and Prevention
Purpose: The overall purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of a suite of environmentally focused nudges on the nutritional quality of consumers' food selections.
Participants: \~2,000 US adults ages 18-25, at least 25% currently enrolled full-time in college, recruited from CloudResearch Prime Panels.
Procedures: Participants will be randomly assigned to view food products with or without environmental nudges (eco-labels, peer comparison message, and swaps). They will be asked to select items that they most wish to purchase and will then be asked a series of questions about the products and nudges. Questions will also include standard socio-demographic variables.
Participants will be recruited from CloudResearch Prime Panels (an online panel research company). Study participants include 2,000 young adults between 18 and 25 years old with at least 25% currently enrolled in college, recruited to match census distribution of race/ethnicity and gender. Participants will electronically acknowledge their consent to participate in the study.
On the study platform (Qualtrics), participants will be randomly assigned to 1 of 2 arms with equal probability. Participants will complete a shopping task via an online 9-minute survey. They will view products displayed as if they were offered from a grocery store. Products will be frozen meals, such as burritos and pizza, snack items such as dried fruit and chips, and protein items, such as ground beef and chicken breasts. They will then be instructed to select 1 item they most wish to purchase from each category.
Participants in the experimental arm will shop and receive environmental nudges in the form of labels, feedback, peer comparisons, and suggested product swaps. In the control arm, participants will conduct online shopping tasks without any environmental nudges. After selecting products, participants will answer questions about the products and labels, as well as standard socio-demographic questions.
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill is the lead sponsor of 1,340 studies on the registry; 133 are open to participants now.
Of its 155 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 136 (88%) have results posted.
Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.
Exclusion criteria:
Participants will conduct online shopping tasks without any environmental nudges. This includes no labels, peer comparison messages, or suggested product swaps.
Participants in the experimental arm will shop and receive environmental nudges in the form of labels, peer comparisons messages, and suggested product swaps.
Behavioral: Environmental nudges
Participants will view protein, frozen meal, and snack products with eco-labels applied. For each category, they will then be instructed to select 1 item from that category they wish most to purchase. Categories will be shown in random order. If a participant selects a product with a red eco-label, they will be shown a peer comparison message and will be given an opportunity to switch to a product with a yellow or green eco-label.
Nutri-Score Scores
Healthfulness of product selections (operationalized as products' Nutri-Score scores). Products' Nutri-Score scores are calculated using the updated 2022 algorithm released by the Scientific Committee of the Nutri-Score (ScC). Scores range from -15 (Nutri-Score of "A") to 40 (Nutri-Score of "E"), with lower scores indicating a more healthful product selection.
Time frame: Immediately after exposure to intervention and product selection task, assessed during 1-time online study visit
Carbon Footprint
Carbon footprint of product selections \[operationalized as products' greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE) per 100g\].
Time frame: Immediately after exposure to intervention and product selection task, assessed during 1-time online study visit
Acceptability of Eco-Label Intervention
Acceptability of eco-labels on products, measured by an item adapted from Vargas-Meza et al., 2019. Likert responses are on a 1 to 5 scale, from "Not at all" (coded as 1) to "A great deal" (coded as 5), with higher scores representing a higher acceptability of eco-labels.
Time frame: Immediately after exposure to intervention and product selection task, assessed during 1-time online study visit
Acceptability of Swaps Intervention
Acceptability of environmental swaps, measured by an item adapted from Vargas-Meza et al., 2019. Likert responses are on a 1 to 5 scale, from "Not at all" (coded as 1) to "A great deal" (coded as 5), with higher scores representing a higher acceptability of swaps.
Time frame: Immediately after exposure to intervention and product selection task, assessed during 1-time online study visit
Acceptability of Peer Comparison Message Intervention
Acceptability of peer comparison messages, measured by an item adapted from Vargas-Meza et al., 2019. Likert responses are on a 1 to 5 scale, from "Not at all" (coded as 1) to "A great deal" (coded as 5), with higher scores representing a higher acceptability of peer comparison messages.
Time frame: Immediately after exposure to intervention and product selection task, assessed during 1-time online study visit
Health Elaboration
How much the participant reports thinking about the healthfulness of products when making selections. Likert responses are on a 1 to 5 scale, from "Not at all" (coded as 1) to "A great deal" (coded as 5), with higher scores representing a higher amount of thinking about the healthfulness of products.
Time frame: Immediately after exposure to intervention and product selection task, assessed during 1-time online study visit
Taste Elaboration
How much the participant reports thinking about the taste of products when making selections. Likert responses are on a 1 to 5 scale, from "Not at all" (coded as 1) to "A great deal" (coded as 5), with higher scores representing a higher amount of thinking about the taste of products.
Time frame: Immediately after exposure to intervention and product selection task, assessed during 1-time online study visit
Cost Elaboration
How much the participant reports thinking about the cost of products when making selections. Likert responses are on a 1 to 5 scale, from "Not at all" (coded as 1) to "A great deal" (coded as 5), with higher scores representing a higher amount of thinking about the cost of products.
Time frame: Immediately after exposure to intervention and product selection task, assessed during 1-time online study visit
Environmental Sustainability Elaboration
How much the participant reports thinking about the environmental sustainability of products when making selections. Likert responses are on a 1 to 5 scale, from "Not at all" (coded as 1) to "A great deal" (coded as 5), with higher scores representing a higher amount of thinking about the environmental sustainability of products.
Time frame: Immediately after exposure to intervention and product selection task, assessed during 1-time online study visit
Perceived Healthfulness of Sustainable Products
Participants' perceptions about the healthfulness of sustainable products. Likert responses are on a 1 to 5 scale, from "Not at all" (coded as 1) to "Extremely" (coded as 5), with higher scores representing a higher perceived healthfulness of sustainable products.
Time frame: Immediately after exposure to intervention and product selection task, assessed during 1-time online study visit
Perceived Healthfulness of Unsustainable Products
Participants' perceptions about the healthfulness of unsustainable products. Likert responses are on a 1 to 5 scale, from "Not at all" (coded as 1) to "Extremely" (coded as 5), with higher scores representing a higher perceived healthfulness of unsustainable products.
Time frame: Immediately after exposure to intervention and product selection task, assessed during 1-time online study visit
Perceived Sustainability of Sustainable Products
Participants' perceptions about the sustainability of sustainable products. Likert responses are on a 1 to 5 scale, from "Not at all" (coded as 1) to "Extremely" (coded as 5), with higher scores representing a higher perceived sustainability of sustainable products.
Time frame: Immediately after exposure to intervention and product selection task, assessed during 1-time online study visit
Perceived Sustainability of Unsustainable Products
Participants' perceptions about the sustainability of unsustainable products. Likert responses are on a 1 to 5 scale, from "Not at all" (coded as 1) to "Extremely" (coded as 5), with higher scores representing a higher perceived sustainability of unsustainable products.
Time frame: Immediately after exposure to intervention and product selection task, assessed during 1-time online study visit
Purchase Intentions of Sustainable Products
Participants' intentions to purchase a sustainable product in the next month. Likert responses are on a 1 to 5 scale, from "Not at all likely" (coded as 1) to "Extremely likely" (coded as 5), with higher scores representing a higher intention to purchase.
Time frame: Immediately after exposure to intervention and product selection task, assessed during 1-time online study visit
Purchase Intentions of Unsustainable Products
Participants' intentions to purchase an unsustainable product in the next month. Likert responses are on a 1 to 5 scale, from "Not at all likely" (coded as 1) to "Extremely likely" (coded as 5), with higher scores representing a higher intention to purchase.
Time frame: Immediately after exposure to intervention and product selection task, assessed during 1-time online study visit
Injunctive Norms
Participants' perceived approval from people important in their life for purchasing environmentally sustainable products. Likert responses are on a 1 to 5 scale, from "Strongly disagree" (coded as 1) to "Strongly agree" (coded as 5), with higher scores representing higher perceived approval about purchasing environmentally sustainable products.
Time frame: Immediately after exposure to intervention and product selection task, assessed during 1-time online study visit
Descriptive Norms
Participants' belief that most shoppers purchase environmentally sustainable foods when shopping for groceries. Likert responses are on a 1 to 5 scale, from "Strongly disagree" (coded as 1) to "Strongly agree" (coded as 5), with higher scores representing higher belief that most shoppers purchase environmentally sustainable foods.
Time frame: Immediately after exposure to intervention and product selection task, assessed during 1-time online study visit
Documents are hosted by the registry — open the source record to download them.
Plan to share: Yes — A deidentified dataset and the corresponding survey codebook will be published to a data repository. The study protocol, statistical analysis plan, and informed consent form will be published alongside as supplementary material.
Supporting information: Study protocol, Sap, Icf
This study is completed, as verified in Oct 2023. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
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University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill