I’ll have this salad on the left, and I’ll have it now! The influence of hunger on healthy-left nudge

Displaying foods congruently with the healthy-left/unhealthy-right (HL/UR) horizontal mental representation could, through self-control facilitation, lead to healthier food choices. Here, by using two versions of the same on-line menu, we tested whether the healthy-left nudge was influenced by the hunger of our participants. A total of 192 participants filled the HL/UR version whereas 194 filled the specular version (unhealthy-left/healthy-right; UL/HR) of the same survey. We did not find a significant difference in healthy (vs unhealthy) item choices when displayed on the left vs the right page of the menu: this null result can be attributed to sated participants that decided to eat the product later. On the opposite, hungry participants who preferred to eat the product immediately were nudged toward healthy (vs unhealthy) products when they were listed on the left page as compared to the right. The implications of these findings are discussed in the context of healthy nudge.