Citizen approval of nudging interventions promoting healthy eating: the role of intrusiveness and trustworthiness

BACKGROUND: Nudging interventions have lately been widely adopted by policy makers to increase the welfare of society and to help citizens make better choices. Hence, it has become important to understand the conditions under which they are approved. While most research has looked into whether professionals approve of nudging interventions, surprisingly the opinion of the target group has been widely ignored. This study investigated citizens' level of approval of nudging in the realm of healthy eating promotion, as well as its boundary conditions.

METHODS: Participants (N = 1441) from the US and seven European countries were probed for their level of approval of nudges. Moreover, we investigated whether these levels of approval were dependent on the level of intrusiveness of the nudge and on the type and trustworthiness of the source (policy makers, experts, industry) implementing the nudge.

RESULTS: People revealed moderate to high levels of approval with nudging across all countries. Intrusiveness and nudging approval were negatively associated. Nudges implemented by experts received more approval than those by policy makers. In general, approval increased with the trustworthiness of the source.

CONCLUSIONS: These results provide information for European and American policy makers considering using nudging in their policy repertoire.