Using salience and availability to promote sustainable and healthy food choices in hospital cafeterias

Abstract

Sustainable diets can achieve considerable reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and improvements in human health, but changing dietary behavior remains a challenge. We assessed the impacts of two behavioral insights strategies on bridging the intention-action gap related to sustainable and healthy food choices amongst hospital cafeteria patrons. In a pilot survey of hospital staff (N = 1,165), 56% identified limited awareness and availability of sustainable food as barriers to purchasing, although 46% were extremely willing to try sustainable dishes. We examined increasing salience (Study 1), varying availability (Study 2a), and decreasing availability (Study 2b) on sustainable and healthy dish purchases in three hospital cafeterias. Each study ran for seven weeks from March to April, 2023. In total, 10,616 dishes were purchased. In Study 1, increasing salience was associated with significant uptake of sustainable and healthy dishes, but the effect disappeared once the salience intervention was removed. In Study 2a, increasing availability of sustainable dishes corresponded to a significant increase in purchases of sustainable dishes, while decreasing availability in Study 2b followed a downward trend in purchases, suggesting that availability drove dietary choices. We recommend hospitals consider these choice architecture interventions to support the adoption of sustainable and healthy diets.