Do social norms affect intended food choice?

Objective. To evaluate the effect of social norms on intended fruit and vegetable intake. Methods. A two-stage design to i) compare the perceived importance of normative influences vs cost and health on dietary choices, and ii) test the prediction that providing information on social norms will increase intended fruit and vegetable consumption in an experimental study. Home-based interviews (N = 1083; 46% men, 54% women) were carried out as part of the Office for National Statistics Omnibus Survey in November 2008. Results. The public's perception of the importance of social norms was lower (M=2.1) than the perceived importance of cost (M = 2.7) or health (M = 3.4) (all p's<0.001) on a scale from 1 (not at all important) to 4 (very important). In contrast. results from the experimental study showed that intentions to eat fruit and vegetables were positively influenced by normative information (p = 0.011) in men but not by health or cost information; none of the interventions affected women's intentions. Conclusions. People have little awareness of the influence of social norms but normative information can have a demonstrable impact on dietary intentions. Health promotion might profit from emphasising how many people are attempting to adopt healthy lifestyles rather than how many have poor diets. (C) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.