How do visual features of social media polls influence the purchase of healthy/unhealthy food products?

An increasing number of food and beverage companies utilize social media platforms for promotion. Unfortunately, most advertised products are high in energy and low in nutrients, contributing to unhealthy diets. The question arises as to whether the numerous interactive options on these platforms, such as polls and their visual components, have the potential to discourage the purchase of advertised unhealthy products or vice versa. This was investigated in a smartphone-based study in which participants (N = 220) were presented with artificial social media polls. Thereby we varied the framing of the poll question “Do you think your diet is healthy?” (Framing: healthy/unhealthy), which the participants could answer accordingly. We also varied the poll results, respectively the percentage of yes answers (percentage: 73%/27%). The participants' answers were visualized in the poll results with a grey bar, which represented the selected answer proportionally. The participants were then presented with 10 food products (products: 5 healthy/5 unhealthy) and asked to rate their purchase intention. The results showed that participants who ate a healthy diet (derived from the combination of framing and participant response) were not only more likely to buy healthy products than unhealthy ones (p < .001), but that this difference was also particularly pronounced when their responses represented a minority response (27%; p < .05); indicating a lower intention to buy unhealthy products. In contrast, no such results were found for participants who ate an unhealthy diet. Further studies – the results of which are currently being evaluated – are investigating the exact role of the visual components (proportionality, color). Even if framing was only relevant in combination with other factors (diet, percentage), it appears that social media polls can be used to influence purchase intentions of food products.