Many consumers make unhealthy choices, but ‘uptrend messaging’ can help drive healthy behavior
Good nutrition and regular exercise can help prevent disease, but substantial evidence shows that only a minority of consumers adequately engage in these and other recommended healthy behaviors. In fact, according to the Centers for Disease Control, only 10 percent of Americans eat enough vegetables, 13 percent get enough fruit and 24 percent exercise adequately.
As a result, many healthy behaviors are what experts would consider “descriptively non-normative,” meaning most people don’t follow the recommendations by engaging in them.
In an effort to help marketers design messages to encourage healthy choices, new research from the University of Notre Dame introduces “uptrend messaging.” Rather than focusing on the fact that most consumers don’t follow the recommendations, it instead emphasizes the positive — that the percentage engaging in healthy behaviors is increasing.
“The Uptrend Effect: Encouraging Healthy Behaviors Through Greater Inferred Normativity” is forthcoming in the Journal of Marketing Research from John Costello and Frank Germann, marketing professors in Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business, along with Aaron Garvey from the University of Kentucky and James Wilkie, a senior data scientist at Fetch Rewards Inc.
The study states, “A key challenge to developing effective messages that encourage proper diet or exercise is rooted in the unpopularity of these behaviors. And when only a minority of people engage in a health-protective behavior, social marketers cannot truthfully use traditional descriptive normative messaging strategies highlighting that the majority of people engage in that behavior.”
Past research has shown that directly pointing out the unpopularity of a behavior tends to discourage engagement.
“By highlighting the positive, uptrend messaging allows consumers to infer the popularity of that behavior on their own, leading them to believe it is more popular than they otherwise would,” Costello said. “This shift in perceptions leads to greater engagement in the behavior.”
Across seven experimental studies, the team aimed to address the “unhealthy behavior is in the majority” quandary and discovered that uptrend messaging leads people to choose vegetables over crackers for a snack or to take a free apple when offered.
They also test the uptrend effect against existing social norm messaging approaches available to managers and policymakers.
“In both a controlled experiment and a field study conducted using Facebook advertising, we find that uptrend messaging outperforms other norm-based approaches,” Costello said. “Taken together, uptrend messaging offers a novel way to shift perceptions of descriptively non-normative behaviors and a practical tool social marketers and policymakers can use to address important societal issues.”
The team observed consumption behavior on a Notre Dame Football Friday and conducted controlled experiments both online and in behavioral labs at Notre Dame and the University of Kentucky. Across all studies, they found uptrend messaging drives healthy behavior and outperforms the other messaging approaches they tested.
The study shows that social marketers can positively influence healthy behaviors without deceiving consumers or providing inaccurate information.
“Our work provides policymakers and social marketers with an actionable and easy-to-implement messaging strategy that highlights truthful, but unexpected trend information around healthy behaviors,” Costello said. “We find that uptrend messaging can be used to encourage healthy behaviors that improve consumer quality of life.”
Contact: John Costello, 574-631-5171, jcostel4@nd.edu; Frank Germann, 574-631-4858, fgermann@nd.edu
Latest University News
- Medicinal chemist Sabine Hadida to deliver Graduate School Commencement addressThe University of Notre Dame Graduate School will hold its annual commencement ceremony at 9 a.m. May 18 (Saturday) at Notre Dame Stadium. Sabine Hadida, a renowned medicinal chemist, will deliver the keynote address. University President Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., will confer the various master’s and doctoral degrees.
- Shields family makes gift to Notre Dame for new state-of-the-art athletics facilityA group of former University of Notre Dame football student-athletes led by linebacker Jack Shields is providing generous support for a new Fighting Irish football facility — one that, combined with the existing Guglielmino Athletics Complex (“Gug”), will accommodate the current and future needs of the University’s athletics programs.
- Division of Student Affairs recognizes outstanding student leadersThe University of Notre Dame’s Division of Student Affairs recognized nine students at the 38th annual Student Leadership Awards Banquet on April 4. These annual awards honor current students who…
- Record four Notre Dame students named 2024 Goldwater ScholarsA record four University of…
- Junior Kayle Lauck named 2024 Truman ScholarUniversity of Notre Dame junior Kayle Lauck has been named a 2024 Truman Scholar. She is the University’s 12th Truman Scholar since 2010 — a group that includes three Rhodes Scholars: Alex Coccia (’14), Christa Grace Watkins (’17) and Prathm Juneja (’20).
- Notre Dame launches University-wide Democracy Initiative to advance research, education and policy efforts to sustain and enhance democracyThe University of Notre Dame has launched an ambitious new Democracy Initiative, an interdisciplinary research, education and policy effort focused on advancing solutions to sustain and strengthen global democracy.…