Designing politically feasible policies to enhance healthy and sustainable diets – empirical insights.
by Simone Wahnschafft
Date of Examination:2024-09-30
Date of issue:2025-01-07
Advisor:Prof. Dr. Achim Spiller
Referee:Prof. Dr. Yasemin Boztug
Referee:Dr. Dominic Lemken
Persistent Address:
http://dx.doi.org/10.53846/goediss-10919
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Abstract
English
The adoption of nutrition policy measures to promote healthy and sustainable diets has lagged behind the health, environmental, social, and economic arguments to invest. In recognition of the fact that a lack of political feasibility – I.e., acceptance of a policy solution by a set of decision-makers and the general public – constitutes a key barrier to adoption, this doctoral thesis focuses on generating insights to mitigate this barrier for various promising policy measures. The dissertation consists of four independent research papers and is divided into five parts. Following CHAPTER 1, which situates the rationale for the undertaking of the dissertation, delineates key theoretical concepts, and presents the various study contexts and objectives, CHAPTER 2 focuses on political feasibility with regard to the adoption of policy ‘packages’ for tackling unhealthy diets. The focus on policy packages, which refers to a suite of policy measures simultaneously adopted to address multi-faceted drivers of dietary behaviors, is situated in the reality that integrated policies are needed – as well as recommended by scientific experts – to realize meaningful shifts in population-level dietary patterns. This section is divided into two papers. The former examines public support for policy packages, with the understanding that it is a key element of political feasibility in liberal democracies in which policymakers must navigate acting in the public interest while maintaining public favor for re-election. Drawing on insights from a conjoint experiment conducted amongst eligible German voters, this study examines how policy packages to tackle unhealthy food environments might be optimally designed and communicated to foster public support. It also examines key individual drivers of support (or lack thereof) for policy packages amongst voters, including various socio-demographic and attitudinal variables that have been shown to influence support for individual nutrition policy measures. The latter paper pivots from a hypothetical policy package to a ‘real-world’ one, focusing on the Promotion of Healthy Eating law adopted in Argentina in 2021, which jointly introduced (1) mandatory front-of-package warning labels on ultra-processed foods (UPFs), (2) restrictions on child-directed marketing of UPFs, and (3) improvements to school food environments, including banning the sale or offering of UPFs and investing in improvements to nutrition education. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with advocates who worked to advance the law through the policy process, this paper gleans key strategies to elevate the political feasibility of a nutrition policy package, particularly in the face of corporate attempts to undermine it. CHAPTER 3 turns to consider political feasibility in the context of another rapidly growing policy sphere for promoting healthy and sustainable diets – nudging. Once again, it is divided into two papers. The former turns once again to the issue of public support. Namely, drawing on insights gleaned from an online experiment conducted amongst eligible German voters, this study examines opportunities to tinker with the design of nudges aiming to shift behaviors towards healthier and/or more sustainable dietary choices to increase support. This study focuses specifically on default nudges to promote healthy and/or sustainable food choices, which are particularly promising with regard to anticipated effectiveness, but tend to garner the least public support amongst nudging strategies. As in the first paper of CHAPTER 2, this study also examines key drivers of support (or lack thereof) amongst voters, including socio-demographic and attitudinal variables. The second paper hones in on the issue of autonomy, which is key to the acceptance amongst both decision-makers and the public of the legitimacy of nudge strategies. Drawing on a scoping review of food choice nudge studies, this paper introduces a typology of three mechanisms that, when not considered, could unduly intrude upon autonomy: (1) the effort to opt-out, delineated along economic and physical sub-dimensions; (2) affective influence, such as social reference messaging and emotional appeals; and (3) non-transparency, including of the nudge itself and of non-nudged alternative options. This typology can support choice architects to discern how nudges might better protect consumer autonomy, and ultimately better uphold it in pursuit of behavior change. Finally, CHAPTER 4 synthesizes insights from across all four papers into a final discussion and outlook, followed by APPENDICES.
Keywords: Public support; Food choice nudges; Political feasibility; Corporate power; Food environments
