Does the magnitude of relative calorie distance affect food consumption?

Huseynov, Samir, Palma, Marco A. and Ahmad, Ghufran ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2454-9335 2021. Does the magnitude of relative calorie distance affect food consumption? Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 188 , pp. 530-551. 10.1016/j.jebo.2021.05.037

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Abstract

Both secondary data and experimental studies offer mixed results regarding the effect of calorie information on consumed calories. Our theoretical model provides foundations to explain the heterogeneous responses found in the empirical literature by identifying two opposing forces affecting calorie intake. Informing consumers about the calorie content of food alternatives can lead to low-calorie food decisions. However, the relative calorie distance between food items can induce temptation and reduce the effectiveness of the calorie information. We implement laboratory and restaurant experiments with incentivized food choices where we exogenously manipulate the magnitude and salience of the calorie difference between food alternatives. We document that providing calorie information increases the propensity to choose the low-calorie option in the range of 3–10 percentage points. But calorie distance discounts the effect of information by 3 percentage points. Hence, the impact of calorie information depends on the relative magnitudes of these two opposing forces.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Business (Including Economics)
Publisher:	Elsevier
ISSN:	0167-2681
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	16 February 2023
Date of Acceptance:	29 May 2021
Last Modified:	12 May 2023 15:58
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/157077

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