You can lead an adolescent to the water, but you cannot make him - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

“You can lead an adolescent to the water, but you cannot make him drink it.” – A nudge approach to reduce energy drink consumption

A.G. Venema, Msc. Social and Health Psychology InGRID “Reaching hard-to-survey groups among the poor” Utrecht University

A quick overview

• Problem:

Adolescents drink too much energy drinks during school hours.

• Current interventions

are not effective, nor is prohibiting.

• Solution:

Nudge them towards healthy beverages.

About the target group

• High school- preparing for vocational education
• Ethinically diverse backgrounds
• In one of the poorest neighbourhoods in

Utrecht

• 631 pupils in 2015-2016

The problem

• (Childhood) obesity

Utrecht municipality population health (2014); Kenney, Gortmaker, Carter, Howe, Reiner & Cradock (2015).

• Caffeine intoxication
• nervousness, anxiety, mood disorders, restlessness, insomnia,

gastrointestinal upset, tremors, tachycardia, psychomotor agitation

American Psychiatric Association (1994); Greden (1974)

• Substance dependence

– withdrawal symptoms (headache, tiredness, concentration problems, nausea, muscle aches, etc.)

Griffiths, et al. (1990); Juliano and Griffiths (2004)

The problem

• Aggressive marketing to adolescent target group
• Born in 1997 
• Lots of literature on energy drinks and alcohol, but we focus on a

school setting.

Interventions so far

• Effective study on decreasing Sugar-sweetened

beverages, supplying non-sugar beverages as replacement.

Ebbeling, Feldman, Osganian, Chomitz, Ellenbogen, & Ludwig (2006)

• Promoting (installation of fountains and educational

programs)water drinking did not decrease soft drink consumption.

Muckelbauer, Libuda, Clausen, Toschke, Reinehr, & Kersting (2009); Kenney, Gortmaker, Carter, Howe, Reiner & Cradock (2015).

• Education programs and injunctive norm convesion 

reactance.

Bem, (1991); Stok, De Ridder, De Vet, & de Wit (2005)

• Therefore, subtle manner of

behavioral influence is neccessary.

What is a nudge?

“A nudge is a change in the choice architecture that steers people towards the best choice, without forbidding alternatives or changing their economic incentives.”

• Thaler & Sunstein, 2008

Some examples

Which nudge should you select?

Diagnostic approach

• dr. P. Hansen

When is a nudge effective?

Proposed method:

Mixed methods:

Step 1

Start with focus group:

• What is the severity of energy drink consumption?
• What is the perceived social norm?
• What does a normal day at school look like?
• What types of groups are there?
• What are things that they talk about with their

friends?

• Attitude of parents on energy drinks.
• Also all of the above questions about water.
• Barriers to drinking water.

Do you know of good sources on how to set up a focus group meeing?

Step 2 experimental design

T1 control condition T2 experimental condition – not fitting nudge (but based on literature) ~washout weeks~ T3 experimental condition – fitting nudge

Dependent variables

• Questionnaire data?
• Potential high non-response.
• Trashcan surveillance ( counting energy drink

cans)?

• Cannot be traced back to individuals.
• Sales data canteen?
• A lot of adolescents bring drinks/food from home or

supermarket.

• Observations?
• Difficult to do unobtrusively.

Summary

• Aim of study:

Compare effectiveness of 2 types of nudges on reducing energy drink consumption in favor of water consumption. Hard-to-persuade + Hard-to-interview

• Question to summerschool:

What is your experience with organizing focus groups?

• preparation, usefullness, sample size,etc.

Follow-up study

• Different target behavior (e.g. Leaving trash lying

around) same approach.

Thank you for your time!

a.g.venema@uu.nl www.selfregulationlab.nl