Lead supervisor:
Dr Lewis Bott 
Start date: October 2016
Award: General
Subject Pathway:
Psychology
Thematic Cluster:
Language, Learning and Behaviour Cluster
Healthy Vending in Welsh Hospitals
My research will be exploring the effects of healthy vending in Welsh hospitals, with the aim of improving its economic sustainability and public health benefits.
In Welsh hospitals, only healthy products can be sold in vending machines, and health promoting labels are displayed on all machines. Preliminary audits suggested that the operationalization of this directive has resulted in large losses and drops in sales volumes.
I will be conducting further investigations into the effect of healthy vending on sales, and exploring whether a decrease in sales volume equates to healthier behaviour, or if consumers are purchasing less healthy snacks from other vendors.
Knowledge from decision making psychology will be applied to develop interventions which make vending machines more profitable and healthier i.e. pricing structures, promotional messages.