Field study of nutritional information and consumer behavior

营养信息和消费者行为的实地研究

• 批准号: 0935908
• 负责人: Julie Downs
• 金额: $ 7.69万
• 依托单位: Carnegie-Mellon University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-07-01 至 2010-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0935908&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Field; study; nutritional; information; consumer

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.

在过去的25年中，美国的肥胖率增加了一倍以上，近三分之二（63％）的美国人超重（37％）或肥胖（26％）。近几十年来，导致肥胖水平上升的一个可能因素是餐厅用餐的增加，因为与家中食用的餐食在家中准备和食用的餐食往往含有更多的卡路里，脂肪和饱和脂肪的比例更高。鉴于其与更高的体重指数（BMI）和体重增加的相关性，快餐食品的消耗可能起着特别重要的作用。最近，加利福尼亚制定了一项法律，要求某些类型的餐馆在2009年7月1日开始在购买点的地点发布营养信息。在最近的研究中，我们发现，在快餐店中提供卡路里信息的影响似乎取决于人群的潜在特征，包括个人差异和先前的信念或行为。值得注意的是，卡路里信息的发布只有在消费者吃不当数量的卡路里并严重低估其摄入量的情况下才具有有益的效果。可以说，这个人群最需要改变行为。但是，我们先前研究的有限数据不能明确地隔离行为改变的预测因素。我们计划使用加利福尼亚即将进行的立法来检验这一和相关的假设，以作为自然实验。我们将构建样本，以确保对几个关键维度的适当差异，我们期望使立法对消费者行为的影响，并确定麦当劳的多个地点和汉堡王连锁店在社区中随着这些重要的人口统计学因素而变化。我们将探讨将营养信息转化为总体行为变化的行为变化，以及关于人们应该吃多少卡路里以及食物中有多少卡路里的信念，个人目标（例如节食）以及当前BMI所反映的当前健康状况的信念。包括就业状况作为预测指标将为可能的经济困难影响提供更多的见解。这些问题的答案将有助于关于教育力量和信息透明度改变行为的持续辩论。加利福尼亚的新立法依赖于提供此类信息的前提，即提供此类信息将导致人们吃更健康的餐点，这一假设在很大程度上未经测试。我们的发现将为决策者提供有关当前政策的有效性以及如何完善未来政策以更好地实现其目的的有效性。