Appealing to generosity to reduce food calorie intake: A natural field experiment

Jennifer Kee, Michelle S. Segovia, Piruz Saboury and Marco Palma ()

Food Policy, 2022, vol. 110, issue C

Abstract: We conduct a natural field experiment where we exogenously manipulate a restaurant’s menu to include a third party charitable donation to a hunger-related charity when customers select a smaller food portion. We find that generosity is an effective instrument for motivating individuals to reduce their food portion size selection, particularly among Overweight/Obese individuals. Overweight/obese individuals are 35 percentage points more likely to choose the smaller portion when it carries a donation. When the donation is combined with a health information nudge, the proportion of smaller portion choices among overweight/obese individuals increases by 48.2 percentage points compared to the baseline.

Keywords: Charity; Food choice; Generosity; Health; Hunger; Weight status (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 D12 H12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jfpoli:v:110:y:2022:i:c:s0306919222000549

DOI: 10.1016/j.foodpol.2022.102274

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