I Am What You Eat: Effects of Social Influence on Meal Selection Online

The availability of m Health technologies has increased exponentially, particularly fitness and calorie tracking applications. Recent studies and anecdotal evidence has highlighted the potential of these technologies to serve as tools of bad eating behavior due to its focus on self-monitoring and calorie counting. The current research investigates on the potential of using social-orienting features of technology, specifically bandwagon and identity cues, to incentivize food-based nutrition (FBN) rather than a calorie-only approach. For this purpose, a 2 x 2 mixed factorial online experiment was conducted with bandwagon cue as a within-subject factor and identity cue as a between-subject factor. Results reveal that 67.6% of participants selected high bandwagon cue meals, regardless of its nutritional value. Bandwagon perception was the only significant predictor of meal selection, indicating that an increase in one unit improved the odds of an individual choosing a high bandwagon meal by 69%.(1)