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 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，因为与在家中食用的食物相比，在户外准备和食用的膳食往往含有更多的热量，并且脂肪和饱和脂肪的比例更高。鉴于快餐与较高的体重指数（BMI）和体重增加的相关性，快餐消费可能发挥着特别重要的作用。最近，加利福尼亚州颁布了一项法律，要求某些类型的餐厅自 2009 年 7 月 1 日起在购买点张贴营养信息。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有所不同取决于人群的基本特征，包括个体差异和先前的信念或行为。值得注意的是，只有当消费者摄入过多卡路里并严重低估其摄入量时，发布卡路里信息才会产生有益效果。可以说，这一人群最需要改变行为。然而，我们之前研究的有限数据无法明确分离出行为改变的预测因素。我们计划使用加州即将到来的立法变更作为自然实验来测试这一点和相关假设。我们将构建我们的样本，以确保在几个关键维度上有适当的方差，我们希望这些维度能够减轻立法对消费者行为的影响，并确定了麦当劳和汉堡王连锁餐厅在这些不同社区的多个位置。重要的人口因素。我们将探索将营养信息转化为整体行为改变，并与人们对应该吃多少卡路里和食物中含有多少卡路里的信念、个人目标（例如节食）和当前健康状况等因素相关。当前 BMI 所反映的状况。将就业状况作为预测因素将为经济困难可能产生的影响提供更多见解。这些问题的答案将有助于关于教育和信息透明度改变行为的力量的持续辩论。加州的新立法基于这样一个前提：提供此类信息将引导人们吃更健康的膳食，但这一假设在很大程度上尚未得到检验。我们的研究结果将使政策制定者了解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标。