Applying psychology to interventions that shape dietary behaviours

Griffiths, Melda ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7489-3452 2022. Applying psychology to interventions that shape dietary behaviours. PhD Thesis, Cardiff University. Item availability restricted.

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Abstract

The aim of this thesis was to explore how psychology could contribute in improving public health interventions that seek to produce healthier dietary behaviours within obesogenic food environments. Although more intrusive than prior vending interventions, we found that a complete replacement approach to healthy vending can generate substantial health benefits, without causing catastrophic drops in profitability nor generating two potential compensatory behaviours (Chapter 2). These findings were taken to suggest that complete healthy vending could be a viable method for producing healthier behaviour at an affordable cost. With prior work showing that health labels have mixed, limited impacts on consumer choices, we attempted to both strengthen their impacts (in Chapter 3) and improve understanding of the ways in which they function (in Chapter 4). The former produced a backfire effect, suggesting that in certain circumstances, highlighting an external agent that is intervening in consumer choice can jeopardize intervention success. The latter offered insights into the ways health labels shape consumer evaluations, and we concluded through providing reflections on the ways in which health labels can be adapted for improved effectiveness in future. In Chapter 5 we explored the potential for health interventions to produce unintended effects in further detail. The succession of food choices is a key consideration – we found evidence to suggest that healthy choices made in intervention conditions are more likely to be followed be less healthy choices in subsequent scenarios. The key implications of these findings for future work and practice are discussed in the General Discussion (Chapter 6), accompanied by considerations of broader issues to be addressed in any future work.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Date Type:	Completion
Status:	Unpublished
Schools:	Psychology
Funders:	ESRC
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	21 October 2022
Last Modified:	10 Feb 2024 02:14
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/153644

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