New Doctor Sanne Raghoebar

In large parts of the Western world, people navigate through food environments that may be characterized by a set of aspects (i.e., cues) within those environments that presumably encourage undesired dietary decisions. Such environmental cues may include the abundance, easy accessibility, or strong promotion of relatively less healthy and less sustainable foods. It is as yet poorly understood how these physical cues in micro food environment actually contribute to our dietary decisions however. This dissertation aimed to improve this understanding, specifically by examining whether social norms can be inferred from physical cues in food environments. Further, it was investigated whether social norm interpretations mediate the effect of food environment exposure on food consumption.

The social norm interpretation was tested among a range of different physical cues, including the presence of a cover on snack bowls, the relative availability of plant-based foods and exposure to different portion sizes of a lunch meal. Thereby, it was attempted to distinguish between perceived descriptive norms (beliefs about what other people do in a given situation) and perceived injunctive norms (beliefs about what should be done according to other people in a given situation). The relevant alternative explanations to the social norm account are also taken into consideration in this dissertation.

This dissertation provides initial support for the proposition that physical cues in micro food environments may be interpreted as a descriptive and/or injunctive norm about normal and appropriate consumption. These ‘social contextual norm cues’ seem to be widely embedded in (self-service) food environments. The findings in this dissertation further provide some preliminary support for the proposition that perceived descriptive and injunctive norms may mediate the effect of physical cues in micro food environments (specifically, served portion sizes) on food consumption. Social norms may thus be regarded as a potential explanatory mechanism of the effect of physical cues in micro food environments on food consumption.