Indirect ways to foster healthier food consumption patterns: Health-supportive side effects of health-unrelated motives

Efforts to fight diet-related diseases by raising health consciousness have been markedly ineffective because these attempts are often paternalistic and normative. To provide less intrusive approaches, the paper reports five mixed-methods studies that explore the health-supportive side effects of motives that are unrelated to health. The qualitative Study 1 identifies quality consciousness and physical appearance consciousness as potential candidates for health-supportive side-effects. Study 2 applies the Implicit Association Test to unravel how quality and physical appearance are implicitly associated with more or less healthy foods. Study 3 corroborates the side effects of the health-unrelated motives on healthy life-styles and healthy food consumption. The study demonstrates that the side effects are particularly powerful for consumers with low health consciousness. Study 4 and Study 5 externally validate the side effects for actual choices and shopping cart composition. Overall, the side effects provide new avenues to nudge food shoppers towards healthier consumption patterns. Yet, to avoid unintended negative effects, such as fostering eating-disorders by over-emphasizing physical appearance consciousness, interventions have to be planned carefully.