HINTS: Health improvements through nudging techniques

Healthy eating habits help prevent diseases such as obesity and cardiovascular diseases. However, many Dutch people still have unhealthy diets. This is largely the result of automatic unhealthy food choices, provoked by an “obesogenic” environment. In this project we investigate “nudges”: interventions in which the automatic processes involved in food choices are used to steer people in the healthy direction, by subtly altering the environment in which these food decisions take place. In this way, healthy eating is promoted without it requiring much effort or willpower from the individual, while maintaining freedom of choice.
In the project we 1) identify suitable nudges, 2) investigate the psychological mechanisms that provide insights into the working mechanisms of nudging
and 3) evaluate the ethical acceptability and impact of nudges on changing eating behaviour and habits on the short- and long-term.