Reconciling psychology with economics: Obesity, behavioral biology, and rational overeating

Smith, Trenton G.

doi:10.1007/s10818-009-9067-8

Cited by 34 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 135 publications

(118 reference statements)

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“…These new tools have spawned biological interpretations of many of the phenomena studied by behavioral economists, which may help researchers understand the peculiarities of consumer Publisher: ANNUALREVIEWS; Journal: ARRE: Annual Review of Resource Economics; Copyright: Volume: 3; Issue: 0; Manuscript: 3_McCluskey; Month: ; Year: 2011 DOI: ; TOC Head: ; Section Head: ; Article Type: REVIEW ARTICLE Page 24 of 30 dietary behavior (Smith 2009). Furthermore, economists working across disciplines have begun to understand the many visceral or psychological determinants of choice, and applications to food are often immediately apparent.…”

Section: Discussion and Future Research Directionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Furthermore, economists working across disciplines have begun to understand the many visceral or psychological determinants of choice, and applications to food are often immediately apparent. Visceral influences such as hunger can limit an individual's ability to make decisions consistent with long-term health, as can emotional states such as stress or depression (Greeno & Wing 1994, Loewenstein 1996, Mancino & Kinsey 2008, Smith 2009). Imperfections in our sensory perceptions sometimes result in difficulties in linking food intake with nutrition.…”

Section: Discussion and Future Research Directionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Nutritional Labeling and Consumer Choices

Kiesel

McCluskey

Villas-Boas

2011

Annu. Rev. Resour. Econ.

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In 1994, nutritional facts panels became mandatory for processed foods to improve consumer access to nutritional information and to promote healthy food choices. Recent applied work is reviewed here in terms of how consumers value and respond to nutritional labels. We first summarize the health and nutritional links found in the literature and frame this discussion in terms of the obesity policy debate. Second, we discuss several approaches that have been used to empirically investigate consumer responses to nutritional labels: (a) surveys, (b) nonexperimental approaches utilizing revealed preferences, and (c) experimentbased approaches. We conclude with a discussion and suggest avenues of future research.Page 1 of 30 information to signal their quality and to receive quality premiums. However, firms that sell less nutritious products prefer to omit nutritional information. In this market setting, firms may not have an incentive to fully reveal their product quality, may try to highlight certain attributes in their advertising claims while shrouding others (Gabaix & Laibson 2006), or may provide information in a less salient fashion (Chetty et al. 2007). Mandatory nutritional labeling can fill this void of information provision by correcting asymmetric information and transforming an experience-good or a credence-good characteristic into search-good characteristics (Caswell & Mojduszka 1996). Golan et al. (2000) argue that the effectiveness of food labeling depends on firms' incentives for information provision, government information requirements, and the role of third-party entities in standardizing and certifying the accuracy of the information. Yet nutritional information is valuable only if consumers use it in some fashion.Early advances in consumer choice theory, such as market goods possessing desirable characteristics (Lancaster 1966) or market goods used in conjunction with time to produce desirable commodities (Becker 1965), set the theoretical foundation for studying how market prices, household characteristics, incomes, nutrient content, and taste considerations interact with and influence consumer choice. LaFrance (1983) develops a theoretical framework and estimates the marginal value of nutrient versus taste parameters in an analytical approach that imposes a sufficient degree of restrictions to generality to be empirically feasible. Real or perceived tradeoffs between nutritional and taste or pleasure considerations imply that consumers will not necessarily make healthier choices. Reduced search costs mean that consumers can more easily make choices that maximize their utility. Foster & Just (1989) provide a framework in which to analyze the effect of information on consumer choice and welfare in this context. They argue that Page 2 of 30 when consumers are uncertain about product quality, the provision of information can help to better align choices with consumer preferences.However, consumers may not use nutritional labels because consumers still require time and effort to process the informatio...

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Section: Discussion and Future Research Directionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussion and Future Research Directionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nutritional Labeling and Consumer Choices

Kiesel

McCluskey

Villas-Boas

2011

Annu. Rev. Resour. Econ.

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“…17 An alternative approach accepts that people might face self-control problems when exposed to the temptation of immediate gratification from food when they are hungry or have a craving for something sweet, fatty or salty (see, e.g., Offer 2001). There is a rich literature on the control of eating, emphasizing physiological mechanisms (Blundell and Gillett 2001;Smith 2006). In particular, humans are endowed with a system of weight regulation that favors weight gain over weight loss to reduce any future risk of starvation.…”

Section: Can Obesity Be Explained By Genes and Relative Prices?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Happiness when Temptation Overwhelms Willpower

Stutzer¹

2009

Happiness, Economics and Politics

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The economics of happiness is applied to further the understanding of important consumption decisions in which limited willpower is often argued to lead to suboptimal choices. Based on individuals' judgments of the quality of their lives, it is, in principle, possible to derive whether some observed behavior is suboptimal and is therefore reducing a person's welfare. We discuss the key characteristics and the normative basis of the approach including the evaluation metric and issues of empirical identification. In addition, evidence on willpower and subjective well-being for three important domains of consumption is presented, i.e., TV viewing, smoking and eating. JEL classifications: D01, D11, D12, D60, D91, I18 , email: alois.stutzer@unibas.ch. I am grateful to Thomas Brändle, Bruno Frey and Michael Zehnder and the participants of the Conference on New Directions in the Study of Happiness at the University of Notre Dame for helpful comments. 4 An excellent account of the ambiguities of welfare in the context of economics and hedonic psychology is provided in Kelman (2005). 5 There is in fact a debate in happiness research about how to measure subjective well-being that might be better understood from the angel of proponents' preferred welfare concept (see Helliwell 2006, Kahneman and Riis 2005 and Kahneman et al. 2004).

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“…Some observers have posited a connection between the way in which animals respond to food uncertainty by putting on weight and the way anxiety and uncertainty in modern life may lead to similar outcomes in humans (Smith ; Smith, Stoddard and Barnes ). In relation to the connection between stress and eating, some believe that, to compensate for physiological changes due to chronic stress, we may comfort‐eat (Dallman et al., ).…”

Section: How Could Obesity Be Related To Inequality?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Challenging The Spirit Level: Is There Really a Relationship between Inequality and Obesity?

Zala¹

2013

Economic Affairs

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This paper examines the proposition, set out in The Spirit Level, that inequality is associated with high levels of obesity. It reviews existing literature and uses British Household Panel Survey data to study how district-level and regional-level income inequality is related to obesity in the UK. This is likely to be the first study of its type that uses individual-level data that is representative of the UK population. We find little evidence to support policies that reduce income inequality with the aim of reducing obesity levels in the UK.JEL codes: I12, I14, I18.

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Reconciling psychology with economics: Obesity, behavioral biology, and rational overeating

Abstract: Evolution, Behavioral ecology, Neuroeconomics, Self-control, Serotonin, Nicotine, MDMA, D03, D83, D87, I12,

Cited by 34 publications

References 135 publications

Nutritional Labeling and Consumer Choices

Nutritional Labeling and Consumer Choices

Happiness when Temptation Overwhelms Willpower

Challenging The Spirit Level: Is There Really a Relationship between Inequality and Obesity?

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