Project

Socio-technical decision support systems for sustainable and healthy food choices in online shopping

Interventions that provide personalized feedback on intended purchases seem promising, but it is unclear how to optimally design and implement personalized feedback for the healthier and more sustainable food choices. In this project, we combine social and technical knowledge to understand how to best develop and implement a personalized decision support approach for healthy and sustainable choices which is expected to be more effective in improving the healthiness and sustainability of consumer food choices than a one-size fits all approach.

Background

It is important to understand how we can stimulate the healthier and more sustainable food choices, as consuming in healthier and more sustainable ways has proven difficult for people. The increase of online grocery shopping and the rise of digitalization provides the opportunity to present consumers real-time feedback at the moment of product choice. A method of providing real-time feedback is the provision of an alternative product suggestion (food swap). The use of food swaps has proven successful when the recommended item was non-personalized and focused on healthiness. However, these suggestions have hardly been personalized while also considering the healthfulness and/or sustainable of the product.

Project description

The main objective of this research project is to understand how to best develop and implement a personalized decision support approach to stimulate healthier and more sustainable food choices. Specific objectives are to ascertain from a social and technical perspective the key opportunities and barriers for creating decision support for better food choices, and how to optimally design and implement a real-time personalized decision support system to stimulate healthier and more sustainable food choices.

Results

In a first study, we investigated the use of non-personalized food swaps to stimulate healthier choices. Results show that these healthier product suggestions do lead to a higher healthiness score of the product basket, indicating that healthier products were chosen.

We also studied the perceptions of experts and consumers regarding (personalized) decision support systems for healthier and more sustainable food choices in a qualitative research with card sorting task. Results show that support is perceived useful, particularly when suggestions are personalized, transparent, and justified. Opportunities for uptake were presenting suggestions early in the shopping trip in a visible but non-disruptive manner, allowing autonomy to choose the type of guidance and to (not) provide personal data, and educating consumers. Support being disruptive or steering, being of low credibility, too generic, and unclarity about what is healthy or sustainable were concerns of decision support. Results from this study reveal the potential for successful digital interventions to encourage healthier and more sustainable choices.

Publications