Healthy Eating Interventions That Work

Press/Media: Research

Description

Melis Ceylan, Nilüfer Aydınoğlu and Vicki Morwitz found that calorie posting is more effective in lowering the total calorie content of orders when food is ordered in the company of others. This improved effectiveness of calorie labelling occurs because ordering an indulgent, high-calorie meal in this specific dining setting adversely affects the image consumers want to project and leads to feelings of anticipated embarrassment that prompt lower-calorie meal choices.

Period5 Jan 2023

Media contributions

1

Media contributions

  • TitleEmbarrassed by Calories: Joint Effect of Calorie Posting and Social Context
    Country/TerritoryUnited Kingdom
    Date5/01/23
    DescriptionGiven growing health concerns about obesity, it is important to understand under what conditions calorie posting will lead to reduced caloric consumption. In one field experiment and three scenario-based studies, we show that disclosing dish-specific calorie information on a menu is more effective in lowering the total calorie of meal orders when food is ordered in the company of others. We further demonstrate that the joint effect of calorie posting and social context on food choice occurs due to anticipated embarrassment as ordering an indulgent, high-calorie meal interferes with impression management concerns in these dining contexts. Consumers order lower-calorie meals to circumvent social embarrassment. Recognizing the importance of impression management concerns during food choice, our research sheds light on previous mixed findings regarding the effectiveness of calorie posting on menus by demonstrating when and why consumers might use caloric information when making food choices.
    URLhttps://knowledge.insead.edu/marketing/healthy-eating-interventions-work
    PersonsMelis Ceylan, Vicki G. Morwitz, Nilüfer Z. Aydinoğlu
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Keywords

  • calorie posting
  • food choice
  • impression management
  • embarrassment