How and When Grouping Low-Calorie Options Reduces the Benefits of Providing Dish-Specific Calorie Information

Abstract

To date the effectiveness of inducing lower-calorie choices by providing consumers with calorie information has yielded mixed results. Here four controlled experiments show that adding dish-specific calorie information to menus (calorie posting) tends to result in lower-calorie choices. However, additionally grouping low-calorie dishes into a single "low-calorie" category (calorie organizing) ironically diminishes the positive effects of calorie posting. This outcome appears to be caused by the effect that grouping low-calorie options has on consumers' consideration sets. When choosing from a calorie-organized menu, consumers are more likely to filter out low-calorie options in the early noncompensatory screening stages of the decision process and, consequently, are less likely to choose low-calorie options. This result disappears when consumers deliberate longer before choosing. These results are important for consumer welfare as well-intentioned restaurateurs (policy makers) may be tempted to institute (mandate) the calorie organization of menus, inadvertently resulting in consumers choosing higher-calorie meals.

Self‐control: Information, priorities, and resources

“…Yet, some strategies can be more effective. While grouping low‐calorie dishes in a menu is not effective, posting the amount of calories of each dish, without grouping, results in lower‐calorie choices (Parker & Lehmann, ). When healthy and unhealthy food packages have information about healthy nutrients, both types of food are considered healthier, but providing this information is still effective as it only increases purchases of healthy items (Ikonen, Sotgiu, Aydinli, & Verlegh, in press).…”

Government Efforts to Aid Consumer Well-Being

“…Related to the preceding, situational variables such as the presentation of items and calories, the relationship of nutritional content to other critical evaluation attributes (price, perceived taste, size), and time pressure may all be interrelated in their effects (Parker & Lehmann, 2014). While the legislation requires that calorie labeling be used for chain restaurants and vending machines, at this point it appears it will also include a broader set of retailers, such as prepared food at grocery stores, convenience stores, take-out-only chains, and such.…”

If I indulge first, I will eat less overall: The unexpected interaction effect of indulgence and presentation order on consumption.

“…We then converted these percentages to calories to obtain an estimate of the calories consumed. Subjective calorie estimates are commonly used in food psychology studies (Chandon & Wansink, 2007;Chernev & Gal, 2010;Parker & Lehmann, 2014).…”