Guiltless gluttony: Misleading size labels lead to overeating
2010-11-16
(Press-News.org) People are easily fooled when it comes to food labels, and will eat more of something if they believe it's a "small" portion, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research.
Authors Nilufer Z. Ayinoglu (Koç University, Istanbul) and Aradhna Krishna (University of Michigan) found that inconsistent portion sizes contribute to people's uncertainty about the appropriate amount to eat. "In this context of large portion sizes and consumer uncertainty about appropriate food intake, we show that size labels chosen by food and drink vendors (such as 'small-medium-large') can have a major impact on consumers' purchase and consumption behavior," the authors write. "As such, food providers' choice of size labels has many potential legislative and liability-related implications."
The researchers conducted five studies that included actual food consumption. They demonstrated that the use of different size labels for the same product affects the amount people consume.
When people consumed a large item that was labeled "small," they felt less guilty; the authors call this effect "guiltless gluttony." "An implication of our results is that consumers can continue to eat large sizes that are labeled as smaller and feel that they have not consumed too much. This can result in unintended and uninformed over-consumption, which is clearly ridden with significant health ramifications, and size labels could be contributing to the rampant obesity problems in the United States."
The authors found that the biasing effect of size labels was most pronounced when people's concern about accurate nutrition intake was not high and when people's ability to process was limited—in other words, situations not unlike everyday life.
"Stricter size labeling laws and more vigilant monitoring of marketers' use of size labels may be needed, especially considering the limited cognitive resources available to consumers for routine food choice and consumption behavior during their other everyday endeavors," the authors conclude.
###
Nilufer Ayinoglu and Aradhna Krishna. "Guiltless Gluttony: The Asymmetric Effect of Size Labels on Size Perceptions and Consumption." Journal of Consumer Research: April 2011 (published online October 27, 2010). For further information, see http://ejcr.org.
END
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2010-11-16
Why would someone choose a credit card with a one percent interest rate over another with a zero percent rate? A new study in the Journal of Consumer Research finds that consumers are often flummoxed when it comes to zero.
"A reasonable assumption is that a product will be more attractive when it offers more of a good thing, such as free pictures (with a digital camera purchase), or less of a bad thing, like interest rates on a credit card," writes author Mauricio Palmeira (Monash University, Australia). But Palmeira's research found that consumer comparison methods tend ...
2010-11-16
LA JOLLA, CA-Fisetin, a naturally occurring compound found in strawberries and other fruits and vegetables, slows the onset of motor problems and delays death in three models of Huntington's disease, according to researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. The study, published in the online edition of Human Molecular Genetics, sets the stage for further investigations into fisetin's neuroprotective properties in Huntington's and other neurodegenerative conditions.
Huntington's disease (HD) is an inherited disorder that destroys neurons in certain parts of ...
2010-11-16
DALLAS – Nov. 15, 2010 – Tiny molecules called microRNAs act together with hormones to control the onset of labor, raising the prospect that RNA-based drugs might be able to prevent premature labor, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have discovered in a preclinical study.
"With these findings, we understand better the system that controls labor, so with future research we might have the potential to manipulate it and prevent preterm birth," said Dr. Carole Mendelson, professor of biochemistry and obstetrics and gynecology at UT Southwestern and senior author ...
2010-11-16
Marketers hope to connect between the consumer and the products they represent by creating a strong brand identity. Now a Tel Aviv University researcher is giving marketers a heavenly new angle to consider ― religious faith ― on which to build their advertising strategies.
Prof. Ron Shachar of Tel Aviv University's Leon Recanati Graduate School of Business Administration says that a consumer's religiosity has a large impact on his likelihood for choosing particular brands. Comsumers who are deeply religious are less likely to display an explicit preference ...
2010-11-16
Point spreads—the number of points by which a strong team can be expected to defeat a weaker team—are supposed to reflect the "wisdom of crowds." But a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research found that crowds don't have a clue.
"Point spread betting markets seem to offer an important example of crowd wisdom, because point spreads are very accurate and are widely believed to reflect the 'crowd's' prediction of upcoming sporting events," write authors Joseph P. Simmons (Yale University), Leif D. Nelson (University of California at Berkeley), Jeff Galak (Carnegie ...
2010-11-16
It's just like a bad breakup: People get emotional when they end a relationship with a brand. A new study in the Journal of Consumer Research examines what happens when people turn their backs on the brands they once loved.
"Customers who were once enthusiastic about a brand may represent a headache for the associated firm beyond the lost revenue of foregone sales because they sometimes become committed to harming the firm," write authors Allison R. Johnson (University of Western Ontario), Maggie Matear (Queens University, Kingston, Ontario), and Matthew Thomson (University ...
2010-11-16
You aced that test; now it's time for a treat.
Sometimes pride in an achievement can lead people to indulge in unhealthy choices, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research.
"Across four studies in the food consumptions and spending domains, we show that pride is associated with two opposing forces; it promotes a sense of achievement, which increases indulgence, and it promotes self-awareness, which facilitates self control," write authors Keith Wilcox (Babson College), Thomas Kramer (University of South Carolina), and Sankar Sen (Baruch College).
The ...
2010-11-16
Consumers value goals they've chosen on their own more than those that are imposed on them, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research.
"When people believe they have autonomously chosen to pursue a goal themselves, they feel the goal is increasingly valuable as they put in more effort, because they experience their own effort as signaling how much they care about it," write authors Ying Zhang (University of Texas at Austin), Jing Xu, Zixi Jiang (both Peking University), and Szu-chi Huang (University of Texas at Austin).
It seems that when people ...
2010-11-16
CHICAGO --- Is cardiovascular health in middle age and beyond a gift from your genes or is it earned by a healthy lifestyle and within your control?
Two large studies from Northwestern Medicine confirm a healthy lifestyle has the biggest impact on cardiovascular health. One study shows the majority of people who adopted healthy lifestyle behaviors in young adulthood maintained a low cardiovascular risk profile in middle age. The five most important healthy behaviors are not smoking, low or no alcohol intake, weight control, physical activity and a healthy diet. The other ...
2010-11-16
Irvine, Calif., Nov. 15, 2010 — UC Irvine researchers have discovered that circadian rhythms – the internal body clock – regulate fat metabolism. This helps explain why people burn fat more efficiently at certain times of day and could lead to new pharmaceuticals for obesity, diabetes and energy-related illnesses.
The study was headed by Paolo Sassone-Corsi, Donald Bren Professor and chair of pharmacology. A leading expert on circadian rhythms, he discovered many of the key molecular switches governing these biological processes. He and his colleagues found that one of ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] Guiltless gluttony: Misleading size labels lead to overeating
