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Study shows that people eat lesser when bribed
Posted on: 04/Aug/2015 10:51:37 AM
A new study shows that bribing people to eat lesser works. The study conducted by researchers of the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California. The paper was published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied.
Researchers studied 3 groups. The first group consisted of a class of sixth graders. They were offered a 9” sandwich and a 4.5” sandwich. However, they had the incentive of inexpensive ear buds along with the smaller sandwich. The majority of the children chose the incentive.
The second experiment was on adults. The group was given the incentive of $100 Amazon gift cards or 10000 frequent flier miles along with a smaller portion of their food. This experiment showed a majority of the people opting for the incentives consistently over three days.
The third experiment was held at a real restaurant. When people came in asking for a full sandwich, they were given the option of choosing the half sandwich and a $10 lottery ticket. Majority chose the incentive again.
This experiment has been dubbed the ‘Happy Meal Effect’. Said one of the researchers, Portion sizes at US restaurants are often two or three times what they were 20 years ago, which is also distorting how much we eat at home... The increase in portion size directly parallels the increase we observe in obesity... Giving consumers an incentive for choosing smaller meal portions means lower daily caloric intake and also helps consumers realise that smaller portions won’t leave them hungry... Our research shows that small and even uncertain incentives motivate less food intake... Even hungry individuals were motivated to switch from the bigger to the smaller portion size when it was paired with an appealing offer. And people consistently chose the smaller meal-plus-incentive even when it was priced the same as the full-sized meal.
