Purpose

Nutritional disorders and unhealthy nutrition, which are recognised as the causes of many widespread health problems (overweight, obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, etc.) have emerged as a significant problem that requires resolution. The purpose of this study is to influence dietary preferences and to reduce current health issues by using gamification as a social marketing tool. To this end, the decision-making processes affecting food choices in individuals based on calorific content were evaluated and the effectiveness of gamification in encouraging consumers to make lower-calorie choices was examined.

Design/methodology/approach

An experimental design was used to determine the effect of gamification on the dietary preferences of consumers. An independent factorial design (between groups) in which multiple variables were tested with different subjects was used to test the factors that were thought to affect the food choices made by the participants from gamified and non-gamified menus.

Findings

In Study 1, menus (gamified vs non-gamified) and nutritional consciousness (low vs high) had a significant main effect on the total calorie count of the selected foods. In Study 2, menus (gamified with prices vs non-gamified with prices) had a significant main effect on the total calorie count of the selected foods, while nutritional consciousness (low vs high) did not. A significant interaction was observed between menus and nutritional consciousness.

Practical implications

Gamification can be used as an important publicity tool for promoting public health using different influential factors such as price.

Originality/value

This study shows that people can change their food preferences positively through gamification. It shows further how people tend to evaluate the price of their food rather than the calorie count when making dietary preferences. Gamification can, therefore, be considered a promising social marketing tool for improving public health.

中文翻译：

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了解游戏化如何影响消费者的饮食偏好

目的

营养失调和营养不良被认为是导致许多广泛的健康问题（超重，肥胖，糖尿病，心血管疾病，癌症等）的原因，已成为需要解决的重大问题。这项研究的目的是通过使用游戏化作为一种​​社会营销工具来影响饮食偏好并减少当前的健康问题。为此，对影响基于热量含量的个人食物选择的决策过程进行了评估，并研究了游戏化在鼓励消费者做出低热量选择方面的有效性。

设计/方法/方法

实验设计用于确定游戏化对消费者饮食偏好的影响。一个独立的因子设计（组间），其中对不同的受试者测试了多个变量，用于测试被认为影响参与者从游戏化菜单和非游戏化菜单中选择的食物的因素。

发现

在研究1中，菜单（游戏与非游戏）和营养意识（低与高）对所选食物的总卡路里计数具有重要的主要影响。在研究2中，菜单（价格游戏化与非价格游戏化）对所选食品的总卡路里计数具有重要的主要影响，而营养意识（低与高）则没有。菜单和营养意识之间观察到显着的相互作用。

实际影响

游戏化可以用作使用诸如价格之类的不同影响因素来促进公共卫生的重要宣传工具。

创意/价值

这项研究表明，人们可以通过游戏化积极地改变他们对食物的偏好。它进一步显示了人们在选择饮食习惯时倾向于倾向于评估食物的价格，而不是卡路里的数量。因此，游戏化可以被视为改善公共卫生的有前途的社会营销工具。