Nudging effects on consumer preferences and willingness to pay for lycopene-enriched fresh tomatoes

• Consumers might increase demand for lycopene-enriched tomatoes when nudged with info. • Nudging affects mean parameters and attribute correlations. • Nudging affects cognitive effort and ANA occurrence. • Nudging impacts marginal WTP distributions. • Nudged consumers show more elastic demand than non-nudged ones. Using a Discrete Choice Experiment, this study examines how informational prompts about the nutraceutical properties of tomatoes influence consumers’ perceptions and preferences for lycopene-enriched fresh tomatoes. The results show that such nudges effectively increase consumer interest in functional foods by raising the perceived importance of their health-related benefits. Furthermore, nudging significantly impacts Willingness To Pay (WTP), with consumers exhibiting higher WTP for tomatoes with enhanced nutraceutical attributes when exposed to the informational prompts. These findings offer valuable insights for promoting healthier dietary choices and for guiding the development of food products that align with shifting consumer values and health consciousness.