Field study of nutritional information and consumer behavior

Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh PA

Investigators

Abstract

In the last 25 years, obesity rates in the United States have more than doubled, with nearly two-thirds (63%) of Americans being overweight (37%) or obese (26%). One possible factor contributing to rising obesity levels in recent decades is an increase in restaurant dining, because meals prepared and consumed outside the home tend to contain more calories and to have a higher percentage of fat and saturated fat than those consumed in the home. Fast food consumption may play a particularly important role given its association with higher Body Mass Index (BMI) and weight gain. Recently, California enacted a law requiring certain kinds of restaurants to post nutritional information at point-of-purchase locations, beginning on July 1, 2009. In recent research, we found that the effects of providing calorie information in fast food restaurants appear to vary depending on underlying characteristics of the population, including individual differences and prior beliefs or behaviors. Notably, the posting of calorie information had a beneficial effect only where consumers were eating an inappropriately large number of calories and severely underestimating their intake. Arguably, this population is at greatest need for behavior change. However, the limited data from our previous research cannot definitively isolate the predictors of behavior change. We plan to test this and related hypotheses using California?s impending legislation change as a natural experiment. We will construct our sample in order to ensure the appropriate amount of variance on several key dimensions that we expect to moderate the impact of legislation on consumer behavior, and have identified multiple locations of McDonald?s and Burger King chain restaurants in neighborhoods varying along these important demographic factors. We will explore the translation of nutrition information into behavior change overall and in relation to factors such as people?s beliefs about how many calories they should eat and how many calories are in their food, personal goals (e.g., dieting), and current health status as reflected in present BMI. Including employment status as a predictor will offer additional insights into possible effects of economic hardship. The answers to these questions will contribute to the ongoing debate on the power of education and transparency of information to change behavior. California?s new legislation relies on the premise that providing such information will lead people to eat healthier meals, an assumption that remains largely untested. Our findings will inform policy makers about the effectiveness of the current policy as well as how future policies might be refined to better achieve their ends.