Behavioral Economics and Food Choice

This is the second in a series of pilot interventions we are conducting to assess how principles from behavioral economics can be applied to improve consumers' food choices. In collaboration with Aramark, the food service vendor, we intend to examine if calorie labeling in different formats impacts consumers choice of bottled beverages in hospital cafeterias. Specifically, we will be testing whether signage that conveys to consumers the number of calories in each bottled beverage will increase the number of zero-calorie beverages sold relative to non-zero-calorie beverages. Likewise, we will test whether signage that conveys calories in exercise equivalents increases the sale of zero-calorie beverages. Lastly, we will test if signage conveying standard calorie information in conjunction with exercise equivalents increases the sale of zero-calorie beverages. We will measure the differential effect of each of these three formats for calorie information.