Effects of Just-In-Time Food Swap Recommendations

This study used a randomized five-condition experiment in a mock online supermarket to investigate whether just-in-time (JIT) food-swap recommendations can improve the healthiness of food choices and whether different types of justification: visibility-only, descriptive/normative language (DNL), social norms, and hedonic enhancement, affect recommendation acceptance and food choice healthiness. The study also examined the psychological mechanisms underlying these effects, focusing on ethe ease of identifying healthy options (EIHO) as a facilitating mechanism and psychological reactance as a potential barrier, and explored whether effects varied by socioeconomic position, food choice motives, and decision-making styles. Ultimately, the study aimed to identify personalization approaches that can make JIT food-swap recommendations effective across the socioeconomic gradient.