Project objectives

Project objectives

The general objective of this project is to advance knowledge on how digital choice environments affect SEP-related disparities in healthy food choice. 

Aim is to uncover:

1. how digital choice environments impact healthy food choice across the socioeconomic gradient;
2. how to design and use a unique affordance of the digital environment, personalization, to stimulate healthy food choice in people with lower SEP;
3. the ethical implications of these influences and novel digital interventions.

To accomplish this, the project is divided into several work packages (WP) with associated research questions:

WP1: The impact of digital choice environments on the healthiness of grocery purchases across the SEP gradient

• To what extent does the grocery channel (online vs. offline) affect the healthiness of food purchases?
• How does a household’s socioeconomic position affect online vs. offline grocery channel decisions for healthy food?
• How will households redistribute their healthy food purchases across the online and offline channels when they migrate to the online grocery channel and how does this differ across households with varying socioeconomic positions?

WP2: Challenges and opportunities for promoting healthy food choices among people with a lower SEP in the transition from offline to online grocery shopping

• How do different SEP indicators relate to motivations regarding healthy food choice, online grocery shopping, decision-making and information processing style?
• What are preferences and needs of people with a lower SEP regarding personalised digital interventions for healthy food choice?

WP3: Understanding the effects and mechanisms of personalised digital interventions across the SEP gradient

• To what extent does the effectiveness and acceptability of personalised digital JIT nudges and their underlying mechanisms (e.g., relevance, autonomy, reactance) vary across the SEP gradient?
• What is the effect of nudge transparency on the effectiveness, acceptability, and mechanisms of personalised digital nudges to promote healthy food choices in people with a lower SEP?
• What is the effect of the source (public versus private party) on the effectiveness, acceptability, and underlying mechanisms of personalised digital nudges to promote healthy food choices in people with a lower SEP?

WP4: The ethics of targeting personalised digital nudges to people with a lower SEP

• To what extent and in what ways are digital health nudges less morally problematic when personalized?
• Do personalized nudges digitally targeted to people with a lower SEP exacerbate or remedy existing unjust disparities in the context of healthy food consumption?

Duration

The project will run from January 2024 – December 2027.

This project is funded by Tilburg University’s Digital Sciences for Society program: