How Physical Cues in Micro Food Environments Influence Consumption: A Social Norm Account

• Main Author: Raghoebar, Sanne
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Published: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses 01-01-2021
• Subjects: Communication; Conformity; Consumption; Decision making; Disease control; Eating behavior; Food; Health care; Litter; Perceptions; Social norms
• ISBN: 9798494453471

In large parts of the Western world, people navigate through (live and function in) a range of food environments that may be characterized by some, or a set of, aspects (i.e., cues) within those environments that presumably encourage undesired dietary decisions, such as the abundance, easy accessibility, or strong promotion of relatively less healthy and less sustainable foods. Indeed, large numbers of people in Western society suffer from (preventable) diet-related chronic diseases, and there is proof of diet-related environmental damage. Consequently, the currently observed consumption patterns in the Netherlands, which deviate from national and global dietary guidelines, are often described as a normal response to an abnormal environment. It is as yet poorly understood how physical cues in micro food environments actually contribute to our dietary decisions however. In this dissertation, we specifically posit that physical and social aspects of food environments are intertwined, particularly by proposing that social norms are physically embedded in food environments. To our knowledge, studies empirically testing the role of social norms as an underlying mechanism of the effect of physical cues in food environments on consumption are largely lacking. Insight into such a knowledge gap may increase the understanding of the causal mechanisms explaining why we eat food that is available in physical micro food environments. This may improve (or optimize) the development of effective intervention strategies encouraging healthy and sustainable diets.The general aim of this dissertation is to improve the understanding of how physical cues in micro food environments determine our dietary decisions. Specifically, we aim to demonstrate that social norms are inferred from physical cues in food environments. We further aim to demonstrate that social norm interpretations mediate the effect of food environment exposure on food consumption. The social norm interpretation is tested among a range of different physical cues, each chapter focusing on a specific physical cue (Chapters 3–5), thereby aiming 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, known from the literature, are also taken into consideration in this dissertation. Consequently, this dissertation contributes to the understanding of the causal mechanisms explaining the effect of physical cues in micro food environments on food consumption. Chapter 2 provides a foundation for the experimental designs applied in Chapters 3–5. To do so, an inventory was created of physical cues in Dutch outsidethe-home food environments potentially communicating social norms. A set of photographs taken in different self-service food environments (Study 1, 40 photographs, e.g., taken in worksite restaurants, roadside shops) was qualitatively analyzed using strategies from photo documentation, semiology, and grounded theory, and the findings were then cross-validated among laypeople (Study 2, n = 173). A great variety of physical cues were structurally linked to either or both descriptive and injunctive norm connotations (e.g., ‘others have taken’, ‘appropriate to take’, respectively). For example, ‘food traces’ and ‘the presence or absence of serving cutlery’ were considered to bear a descriptive and an injunctive norm, respectively.