Denise de Ridder

Utrecht University | UU

In recent years, self‐control research has shifted from a focus on effortful inhibition towards an understanding of self‐control as strategically navigating one's environment by ignoring or avoiding situations that may challenge self‐control. Yet despite increased attention to strategic self‐control, an explicit consideration of perceived control o...

The current food environment strongly communicates the normality of consuming unhealthy and unsustainable food products. However, it is unclear whether people truly support this unhealthy and unsustainable social norm, or that they follow the norm (reluctantly) because they believe that other people agree with it, a phenomenon that is generally kno...

In spite of the growing availability of COVID-19 vaccines, a substantial number of people is reluctant or uncertain about getting the vaccine. Nudges may improve vaccine uptake but it is unclear how this plays out with the experience of autonomous choice, decision competence, decision satisfaction, and being pressured to make a choice. In an online...

The protein transition is one of today's major societal challenges to mitigate climate change. To support lasting consumer engagement, it has been suggested to look into consumers' understanding of the protein transition to identify barriers that go beyond the practical issues of changing one's diet. The current study explored consumers' mental mod...

The supermarket is a promising location for stimulating healthier food choices by nudging interventions. However, nudging healthy food choices in the supermarket has shown weak effects to date. The present research introduces a new nudge based on the concept of affordances - i.e., an animated character - that invites interaction with healthy food p...

The current food environment communicates the social norm that it is normal to consume large amounts of unhealthy and unsustainable foods. However, it is unknown whether people endorse this norm because they agree with it, or whether they endorse it because they overestimate the degree to which other people agree with this norm – a phenomenon that...

Defaults have been shown to increase the number of organ donor registrations but it is unclear whether they violate personal autonomy of the people being registered. The implementation of a new Donor Act in the Netherlands, providing people with the opportunity for active registration before being defaulted, allowed for examining to what extent def...

Nudges have been proposed as an effective tool to stimulate influenza vaccination uptake in healthcare workers. However, the success of such nudges in practice is heavily reliant on their acceptance by the intended healthcare worker population, which has not been thoroughly examined to date. This study investigated healthcare workers’ acceptability...

COVID-19 mitigation measures intend to protect public health, but their adverse psychological, social, and economic effects weaken popular support. Less favorable trade-offs may especially weaken support for more restrictive measures. Support for mitigation measures may also differ between population subgroups who experience different benefits and...

The negative effects of overconsumption of food have been extensively studied, with a focus on overweight and negative food attitudes. In this overview, we argue that this negative perspective has spilled over to food consumption in general, which is in contrast with eating as a pleasurable activity that contributes to people's well-being. We revie...

The outbreak of COVID‐19 has turned out to be a major challenge to societies all over the globe. Curbing the pandemic requires rapid and extensive behavioural change to limit social interaction, including physical distancing. In this study, we tested the notion that inducing empathy for people vulnerable to the virus may result in actual distancing...

Objective: Defaults have been shown to substantially increase the number of organ donor registrations. However, it is unclear whether defaults violate personal autonomy of the people being registered. The implementation of a new Donor Act in the Netherlands, providing people with the opportunity for active registration before being defaulted, allow...

Self-regulation is an important predictor of many outcomes relating to health and well-being. Research thus far has not systematically addressed the development of self-regulation strategies during young adulthood, but instead has focused on the predictive value of childhood self-regulation competence for outcomes later in life. The present study p...

Nudges have repeatedly been found to be effective, however they are claimed to harm autonomy, and it has been found that laypeople expect this too. To test whether these expectations translate to actual harm to experienced autonomy, three online studies were conducted. The paradigm used in all studies was that participants were asked to voluntarily...

Nudges are behavioral interventions to subtly steer citizens’ choices toward “desirable” options. An important topic of debate concerns the legitimacy of nudging as a policy instrument, and there is a focus on issues relating to nudge transparency, the role of preexisting preferences people may have, and the premise that nudges primarily affect peo...

Nudges are defined as small adjustments in the choice architecture that help people perform desirable behavior. How nudges interact with individuals’ motivation has not been studied empirically. We conducted three studies with different types of defaults in three different behavioral domains and investigated how defaults and different types of moti...

Nudges are defined as small adjustments in the choice architecture that help people perform desirable behavior. How nudges interact with individuals’ motivation has not been studied empirically. We conducted three studies with different types of defaults in three different behavioral domains and investigated how defaults and different types of moti...

Introduction: Little has been published on the psychological bond between the owner and the pet, and how this might influence shared habits that could lead to overweight and obesity. Another factor that could improve the effectiveness of a weight loss plan, is that the owner would see the dog as a weight loss partner and therefore this could increa...

On March 15, 2020, the Dutch Government implemented COVID-19 lockdown measures. Although self-quarantine and social-distancing measures were implemented, restrictions were less severe compared to several other countries. The aim of this study was to assess changes in eating behavior and food purchases among a representative adult sample in the Neth...

Previous research has shown that nudging can effectively support people’s healthy food choices. Yet, to date knowledge about the psychological premises of nudging is limited, highlighting the need for closer scrutiny to determine how and when nudging is most effective. In the current study, we assessed whether the presumed effect of nudging on heal...

Objective While nudges are increasingly utilized in public policy settings, their potential threat to autonomous choice is the topic of heated debate. Regardless of the actual effects of nudges on autonomy, the mere perception of nudges as autonomy threatening by the general public or policy makers could negatively influence nudge acceptability. Th...

De overheid kan gezond gedrag van burgers stimuleren aanpakken via zogeheten ‘nudges’. Nudges zijn een beleidsinstrument om gewenste keuzes te bevorderen zonder opties te verbieden of de kosten die ermee gemoeid aanzienlijk te veranderen. Denk aan het prominent weergeven van gezonde producten in de kiosk op het station. In termen van instrumenten d...

While many people declare an intention to eat and snack more healthily, a large body of research has found that these intentions often do not translate into actual behavior. This failure to fulfil intentions is regularly attributed to the obesogenic environment, on which basis it is assumed that changing the food environment may lead to more health...

Nudges have become increasingly popular among policymakers as a tool to stimulate desirable behavior for individuals or society. One of the most prevailing assumptions of nudges is that they make use of automatic processing. Yet, this assumption has received little attention in experimental research. In two preregistered and high powered studies, w...

While nudges have been shown to be effective and are already being implemented, there is still a debate on the ethics of nudging. This debate specifically refers to the potential of nudges negatively affecting autonomy. It has been suggested that making a nudge transparent may resolve this issue. Whereas previous research has already demonstrated t...

In this paper, we critically review three assumptions that govern the debate on the legitimacy of nudging interventions as a policy instrument: (1) nudges may violate autonomous decision-making; (2) nudges lend themselves to easy implementation in public policy; and (3) nudges are a simple and effective mean for steering individual choice in the ri...

Samenvatting Veel mensen willen graag gezond snacken, maar vinden het lastig om dit voornemen in de praktijk te brengen. Dat komt omdat ze voortdurend geconfronteerd worden met ongezonde snacks als ze op weg zijn naar school, werk of andere activiteiten. In het project Food in Motion hebben we onderzocht of gezond snacken gemakkelijker wordt door h...

Nudges have gained popularity as a behavioral change tool that aims to facilitate the selection of the sensible choice option by altering the way choice options are presented. Although nudges are designed to facilitate these choices without interfering with people’s prior preferences, both the relation between individuals’ prior preferences and nud...

Nudges are defined as small adjustments in the choice architecture that stimulate desirable behavior. Nudging techniques can be used as a promising policy tool, but research has hardly systematically taken into account the complexity of the situation in which nudges have been implemented. In the current studies, we investigated the effectiveness of...

Seemingly insignificant daily practices, such as sugar usage in tea, can have a great accumulated impact on societal issues, such as obesity. That is why these behaviours are often the target of nudge interventions. However, when these behaviours are performed frequently they may turn into habits that are difficult to change. The aim of the current...

People repeatedly encounter response conflicts (i.e., self-control dilemmas between long-term and short-term goals). A longitudinal study was conducted to investigate how resolution of response conflict develops over time. Participants pursued a long-term goal. The design entailed pre- and post-measurements, as well as daily/weekly measures using a...

Although many people intend to eat healthily, their actual snacking behavior is often marked by a high consumption of calorie-dense, unhealthy snacks. One reason for this discrepancy may be that people tend to associate unhealthy food with tasty food, preventing them to follow up on their healthy snacking goals. To support people in snacking more h...

When striving for long-term goals (e.g., healthy eating, saving money, reducing energy consumption, or maintaining interpersonal relationships), people often get in conflict with their short-term goals (e.g., enjoying tempting snacks, purchasing must-haves, getting warm, or watching YouTube video’s). Previous research suggests that people who are s...

Background: Overweight in children is a rising problem leading to serious consequences later in life. The Dutch guideline 'Obesity' for general practitioners recommends discussing obesity in children regardless of the reason of consultation and provides diagnostic and therapeutic tools. However, limited literature indicates that general practition...

Self-control is considered a crucial capacity that helps people to achieve important objectives in the face of temptation. However, it is unknown to what extent self-control is a stable disposition that is unaffected by how often people engage in self-control, or more like a skill that develops and grows over time. In the present study, we employed...

Background: The current field experiment demonstrates the effectiveness of nudging to promote healthy food choices. Methods: Three types of nudges were implemented at a take-away food vendor: 1) an accessibility nudge that placed fruits at the front counter; 2) a salience nudge that presented healthy bread rolls to be more visually attractive; a...

In this chapter, the Focus Theory of Normative Conduct is discussed. This theory posits that social norms provide people with decisional shortcuts of how to behave in certain situations, either because it is typical or normal (descriptive social norms) or because it is appropriate or desired (injunctive social norms). This theory further specifies...

In recent years there has been increased attention for nudging as a tool to alter consumer decisions. While nudges should in theory preserve freedom of choice by respecting consumers’ preferences, empirical scrutiny of this claim is sparse. This research investigates the effectiveness of a center-stage nudge to encourage the consumption of a small...

Objective: The current study aimed to test whether and how self-control and perceived control play a role in health outcomes and lifestyle differences between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged neighbourhoods. Design: Cross-sectional survey data including demographics was collected from 3758 participants. Main outcome measures: With the survey, se...

Although several studies provide evidence that trait self-control contributes to subjective well-being, the self-control strategies that promotes happiness and life satisfaction remains unknown. The present study aims to shed light on this relation by investigating the mediating role of four self-control strategies: situation selection, attentional...

Objective Giving in to food temptations is typically labeled as self‐regulation failure. However, when indulgence stems from self‐licensing processes, i.e., relying on reasons to justify diet deviations, these instances might actually promote successful goal striving. This research aimed to theoretically define and test under what conditions self‐l...

Objective: Research on self-licensing, i.e. employing justifications to give into temptation, largely consists of studies examining dichotomous food choices (healthy vs. unhealthy), while evidence for its effects on how much (unhealthy) food is consumed remains scarce. The present studies aimed to demonstrate self-licensing effects on caloric consu...

Background: Nudging interventions have lately been widely adopted by policy makers to increase the welfare of society and to help citizens make better choices. Hence, it has become important to understand the conditions under which they are approved. While most research has looked into whether professionals approve of nudging interventions, surpri...

Objective: Previous research has shown that people consume less food in the dark compared to normal vision conditions. While this effect is commonly attributed to increased attention to internal cues, it could also be caused by increased difficulty to maneuver in a dark setting. This study investigated this potential alternative explanation. Desi...

Background/objective: Bedtime procrastination is a prevalent cause of sleep deprivation, but little is known about why people delay their bedtimes. In the present research, we conducted a qualitative study with bedtime procrastinators to classify their self-reported reasons for later-than-intended bedtime. Participants: Participants (N = 17) wer...

Background: Initiating and maintaining a healthy lifestyle -including healthy eating and sufficient physical activity- is key for cardiometabolic health. A health-promoting environment can facilitate a healthy lifestyle, and may be especially helpful to reach individuals with a lower socio-economic status (SES). In the Supreme Nudge project, we wi...

The term self-control is broadly used by both researchers and lay people. However, both the term itself and the research on self-control is full of assumptions that are often unexamined and unchallenged. In this paper, we question many assertions and assumptions about self-control that foster confusion and controversy, including the multitude of pr...

This chapter discusses the relationship between affect and eating behavior from two points of view – how affect shapes eating behavior and how eating behavior generates affect – arguing that in order to appreciate how affect influences eating behavior we must understand in what way eating generates affect. We first discuss biological and social-cul...

The term self-control is broadly used by both researchers and lay people. However, both the term itself and the research on self-control is full of assumptions that are often unexamined and unchallenged. In this paper, we question many assertions and assumptions about self-control that foster confusion and controversy, including the multitude of pr...

Bedtime procrastination is an important predictor of sleep insufficiency in the general population (Kroese et al., 2014b), but little is known about the determinants of this self-undermining behavior. As the phenomenon has been conceptualized in the literature as a form of self-regulation failure (Kroese et al., 2014a), we hypothesized that people’...

Self-licensing, employing reasons to justify indulgence, may help resolve the conflict between immediate temptations and long-term goals in favor of the former. It was hypothesized that this conflict-resolving potential of self-licensing may benefit self-regulation over time. With a momentary assessment design, we examined how self-licensing affect...

This chapter discusses the relationship between affect and eating behavior from two points of view-how affect shapes eating behavior and how eating behavior generates affect-arguing that appreciating how affect influences eating behavior depends on understanding in what way eating generates affect. It first discusses biological and social-cultural...

Objective: The current study is a longitudinal conceptual replication of the study by Kroese et al. (2015) and aimed to investigate the effect of a food repositioning nudge on healthy food choice in a kiosk. Design: During eight weeks, sales data were collected. The former four weeks formed the baseline phase and the latter four weeks formed the nu...

Objective: This study assessed the effect of a default nudge to reduce sedentary behaviour at work over time. Design and main outcome measures: A field study was conducted at a governmental organisation. In the present study, the default setting of sit–stand desks (SSDs) was changed from sitting to standing height during a two-week intervention. St...

In this article we discuss recent findings in trait self-control research suggesting that successful self-control may rely on either handling the self-control dilemma in a smart and effortless way or on the effortfully inhibiting an immediate urge or an unwanted response. We then contrast these results with findings from ego-depletion research on s...

The majority of existing research and conventional wisdom would advise against shopping on an empty stomach as hunger is assumed to encourage impulsive choices that typically lead to self-control failure (i.e., favouring short-term gratifications at the expense of long-term goals). Nonetheless, through two studies the current research aims to demon...

Objective: To discuss healthy diet from a psychological perspective by considering definitions of healthy diet in terms of consumer understanding; the health effects of specific dietary elements in terms of overweight and (chronic) illness; the prevalence of healthy diet; the psychological and environmental determinants of healthy diet; and the ps...

Nudging interventions are broadly defined as a rearrangement of a choice context that gently suggests a specific choice. Their increasing popularity has attracted attention and discussion from researchers, policy makers, and practitioners alike. After some applications to domains such as health, environmental issues, and retirement savings, the nex...

It seems common knowledge that trait self-control helps people to achieve the things they find important in their lives by not being distracted by immediate pleasures and temptations. Initial evidence suggests that trait self-control is important in wellbeing as well, with people high in self-control experiencing more positive momentary affect, lif...

Nudging, kortweg gedefinieerd als het gemakkelijker maken van de gewenste (gezonde) keuze zonder de ongewenste keuze te verbieden, wint aan populariteit als alternatief voor gebruikelijke (veelal educatieve) interventies in de openbare gezondheidszorg. Duidelijke aanknopingspunten om te gaan experimenteren met nudges in de praktijk ontbreken evenwe...

In 2008 publiceerden gedragseconoom Richard Thaler en jurist Cass Sunstein hun bekende boek over nudges, waarin ze verslag doen van allerlei maatregelen die bedoeld zijn om mensen op subtiele wijze te stimuleren om verstandige keuzes te maken zonder de alternatieve keuze te verbieden. Acht jaar na het verschijnen van ‘Nudge’ kunnen we gerust stelle...

This systematic review aims to assess the role that peer social norms play in shaping young people's food intake, focusing on the important questions of for whom and when peer social norms are related to how much young people eat. Thirty-three eligible studies were reviewed (seventeen correlational, sixteen experimental). All but one correlational...

Deviating from existing literature on self-control failure the current research examines self-control success and the role of motivation. Functional research suggests people visually perceive objects to be bigger when they are motivated to approach them. Using the size perception task, participants estimated the size of a healthy and an unhealthy f...

Good self-control has been linked to adaptive outcomes such as better health, cohesive personal relationships, success in the workplace and at school, and less susceptibility to crime and addictions. In contrast, self-control failure is linked to maladaptive outcomes. Understanding the mechanisms by which self-control predicts behavior may assist i...

In this chapter, we discuss a specific domain of procrastination that significantly affects health and well-being, “bedtime procrastination”: the phenomenon of postponing going to bed, typically resulting in a lack of sleep. The chapter describes how a lack of sleep affects health and well-being, how bedtime procrastination plays a role in this reg...

Background: Previous studies have mainly examined the immediate effects of self-licensing on self-regulation failure. The present vignette studies examined what happens when a second self-regulation dilemma is encountered. Methods: In Studies 1 (N = 52) and 2 (N = 166), participants read a vignette in which the protagonist chooses to buy a treat...

Objects, such as food, in the environment automatically activate and facilitate affordances, the possibilities for motoric movements in interaction with the objects. Previous research has shown that affordance activation is contingent upon the distance of the object with only proximal objects activating potential movements. However, the effect of a...

Previous research has shown that satisfaction mediates the relationship of state mindfulness (i.e. during physical activity) with physical activity. This study aimed to replicate this finding and to explore the role of trait mindfulness with a cross-sectional design. In all, 305 participants completed measures on trait and state mindfulness, satisf...

Background: Effective interventions promoting healthier eating behavior among adolescents are urgently needed. One factor that has been shown to impact effectiveness is whether the target population accepts the intervention. While previous research has assessed adults' acceptance of eating-related interventions, research on the opinion of adolesce...

p>This systematic review aims to assess the role that peer social norms play in shaping young people's food intake, focusing on the important questions of for whom and when peer social norms are related to how much young people eat. Thirty-three eligible studies were reviewed (17 correlational, 16 experimental). All but one correlational studies fo...

Health psychology is an area of applied psychological research and a profession. Health psychology research examines the determinants and consequences of physical health, showing that health behaviors are critical to health. Four core topics in health psychology are discussed in this article: (1) the promotion and maintenance of health, (2) prevent...

Low self-control is a state in which consumers are assumed to be vulnerable to making impulsive choices that hurt long-term goals. Rather than increasing self-control, the current research exploits the tendency for heuristic-based thinking in low self-control by employing scarcity heuristics to promote better consumption choices. Results indicate t...

In this paper, we highlight a novel perspective on health behavior failure by considering reasoned procrastination as a contributing factor. We argue that the failure to enact intentions does not necessarily occur because people are victims of their strong impulses, but that people may also knowingly and willfully postpone their intended actions. W...

Self-control leads to positive life outcomes, but is poorly understood. While previous research focused on self-control failure, self-control success remains unexplored. The current studies aims to shed more light on the mechanisms of self-control by focusing on the resolution response conflict as a key component in self-control success. Trait self...

Het zingt steeds meer rond onder beleidsmakers en gezondheidsprofessionals: Nudging, een strategie voor gedragsbeïnvloeding waarbij gebruik wordt gemaakt van de impulsieve, automatische processen die mensen gebruiken om keuzes te maken. Een ‘nudge’ kan mensen een duwtje geven in de richting van verstandige, gezonde keuzes. Hoewel deze aanpak veelbe...

Recognizing the mindless nature of many food decisions, it has been suggested that attempts to increase healthy eating should not focus on convincing people what is 'right' but rather aim to adjust the environment such that people are automatically directed toward healthy choices. This study investigated a nudge aiming to promote healthy food choic...

Objective: Visually attending to unhealthy food creates a desire to consume the food. To resist the temptation people have to employ self-regulation strategies, such as visual avoidance. Past research has shown that self-regulatory skills develop throughout childhood and adolescence, suggesting adults' superior self-regulation skills compared to c...

It is often assumed that there are substantial sex differences in eating behaviour (e.g. women are more likely to be dieters or emotional eaters than men). The present study investigates this assumption in a large representative community sample while incorporating a comprehensive set of psychological eating-related variables. A community sample wa...

Background Nudging strategies have recently attracted attention from scholars and policy makers for their potential in influencing people’s behaviors on large scales. But is the fact that nudges do not forbid any choice-options or significantly alter people’s economic incentives sufficient to conclude that nudges should be implemented? While this i...

Background: Overweight epidemics, including among children and adolescents, are fuelled by contemporary obesogenic environments. Recent research and theory highlight the importance of socio-cultural factors in mitigating adverse impacts of the abundance of food in high-income countries. The current study examines whether family meal culture shapes...

Self-control is of invaluable importance for well-being. While previous research has focused on self-control failure, we introduce a new perspective on self-control, including the notion of effortless self-control, and a focus on self-control success rather than failure. We propose that effortless strategies of dealing with response conflict (i.e.,...

De diagnose type 2 diabetes gaat vaak gepaard met leefstijladvies gericht op gezonde voeding en voldoende beweging. Hoewel zelfmanagementinterventies die beogen de leefstijl van patiënten te verbeteren steeds populairder worden, werd in de literatuur gesuggereerd dat een dergelijke aanpak minder effectief zou kunnen zijn voor patiënten met obesitas...

Both satisfaction and mindfulness relate to sustained physical activity. This study explored their relationship. We conducted a cross-sectional study with 398 Dutch participants who completed measures on trait mindfulness, mindfulness and satisfaction with physical activity, physical activity habits, and physical activity. We performed mediation an...