Field study of nutritional information and consumer behavior

在过去的25年里，美国的肥胖率增加了一倍多，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馆用餐的增加，因为在户外准备和消费的饭菜往往含有更多的卡路里，脂肪和饱和脂肪的百分比高于在家中消费的食物。快餐消费可能发挥特别重要的作用，因为它与较高的身体质量指数（BMI）和体重增加有关。最近，加州颁布了一项法律，要求某些类型的餐馆在购买点位置张贴营养信息，从2009年7月1日开始。在最近的研究中，我们发现快餐店提供卡路里信息的效果似乎取决于人群的潜在特征，包括个体差异和先前的信念或行为。值得注意的是，只有当消费者摄入了不适当的大量卡路里并严重低估了他们的摄入量时，卡路里信息才会产生有益的影响。可以说，这一人群最需要改变行为。然而，从我们以前的研究有限的数据不能明确地隔离行为变化的预测。我们计划用加州的情况来检验这个假设和相关的假设。美国即将进行的立法改革是一个自然的实验。我们将构建我们的样本，以确保在几个关键方面，我们期望适度的立法对消费者行为的影响，并确定了麦当劳的多个地点的方差适当的量？麦当劳和汉堡王连锁餐厅在不同的社区沿着这些重要的人口因素。我们将探讨营养信息转化为行为变化的整体和相关因素，如人？关于他们应该吃多少卡路里和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。将就业状况作为一项预测因素，将为了解经济困难可能产生的影响提供更多的见解。这些问题的答案将有助于正在进行的关于教育和信息透明度改变行为的力量的辩论。加州？美国的新立法依赖于这样一个前提，即提供这些信息将导致人们吃更健康的食物，这一假设在很大程度上尚未得到验证。我们的研究结果将告知政策制定者当前政策的有效性以及未来政策如何改进以更好地实现其目标。

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.