Effect of Gamification in an Online Grocery Store.

Overview

The overall objective of this research is to evaluate the impact of gamification on the diet quality of food choices made by American adults in an online grocery shopping experiment. Participants will shop for 12 food items from a grocery shopping list determined by the research team in a simulated online grocery store designed for this experiment. Each product has a nutritional quality score based on the Guiding Stars algorithm. The experiment tests the gamification of the nutritional quality score. Participants exposed to gamification see one to five crowns illustrating the nutritional quality of the food and a scoreboard indicating the total number of crowns from foods in the participant's shopping basket. Participants will be assigned to experimental conditions of gamification (game or no game) and a fictitious budget ($30 or $50). The investigators will test if the game and the budget affect the dietary quality of their final shopping baskets. The experiment is a 2x2 experimental design. The investigators hypothesize that the presence of gamification will change the dietary quality of participants' final shopping baskets. The investigators hypothesize that a higher budget will change the dietary quality of the final shopping basket. The investigators also hypothesize that the game and higher budget together will change the dietary quality of the final shopping basket.

Participants will be assigned to one of four experimental conditions: 1. Game=No and Budget = $30 2. Game=No and Budget = $50 3. Game=Yes and Budget = $30 4. Game=Yes and Budget = $50. Variables: 1. Game: Indicates exposure to the game (dummy variable) 2. Budget: Indicates exposure low ($30) or high ($50) budget constraint (dummy variable). 3. Total number of crowns: sum of the number of crowns associated with the 12 items included in participants' final shopping baskets (a continuous variable that ranges from 12 to 60). 4. Number of crowns: number of crowns associated with each of the 12 items included in participants' final shopping baskets separately (a continuous variable that ranges from 1 to 5).