Mindless Eating and Healthy Heuristics for the Irrational
6 Pages Posted: 31 Jul 2014
Date Written: May 1, 2009
Abstract
Food choice decisions are not the same as intake volume decisions. The former determine what we eat (soup or salad); the latter determine how much we eat (half of the bowl or all of it). Large amounts of money, time, and intelligence have been invested in understanding the physiological mechanisms that influence food choice (James O. Hill, forthcoming). Much less has been invested in understanding how and why our environment influences food consumption volume. Yet environmental factors (such as package size, plate shape, lighting, variety, or the presence of others) affect our food consumption volume far more than we realize (Wansink 2006). Whereas people can acknowledge that environmental factors influence others, they wrongly believe they are unaffected. Perhaps they are influenced at a basic level of which they are not aware. A better understanding of these drivers of consumption volume will have immediate implications for research, policy, and personal interventions. There are three objectives of his paper: (1) explain why environmental factors may unknowingly influence food consumption; (2) identify resulting myths that may lead to misspecified models or misguided policy recommendations; and (3) offer clear direction for future research, policy, and personal dietary efforts.
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?
Recommended Papers
-
Can 'Low Fat' Nutrition Labels Lead to Obesity?
By Brian Wansink and Pierre Chandon
-
Bottomless Bowls: Why Visual Cues of Portion Size May Influence Intake
By Brian Wansink, James Painter, ...
-
Why Visual Cues of Portion Size May Influence Intake
By Brian Wansink, James Painter, ...
-
Internal and External Cues of Meal Cessation: The French Paradox Redux?
By Brian Wansink, Collin R. Payne, ...
-
Portion Size Me: Downsizing Our Consumption Norms
By Brian Wansink and Koert Van Ittersum
-
By Brian Wansink and Koert Van Ittersum
-
The 100-Calorie Semi-Solution: Sub-Packaging Most Reduces Intake Among the Heaviest
By Brian Wansink, Collin R. Payne, ...
-
Modeling Expert Opinions on Food Healthiness: A Nutrition Metric
By Jolie Mae Martin, John Beshears, ...