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Facilitating healthy dietary habits: An experiment with a low income population

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  • Belot, Michèle
  • James, Jonathan
  • Spiteri, Jonathan

Abstract

This paper tests an intervention aimed at facilitating (cognitively) the adoption of healthy dietary habits. We provide easy-to-understand information about the risks of developing diabetes or heart diseases and give easy-to-follow dietary recommendations to minimize these risks. We implement two variations, one consisting of generic information, the other consisting of information tailored to the individual, the latter resembling newly developed on-line health assessment tools. On top of the information treatment, we implement a second experimental variation encouraging people to spend more time thinking about their decisions. We find evidence that the information intervention leads to healthier choices in the short run, but mostly in the generic treatment. Surprisingly, we find that people are on average pessimistic about their health, and therefore receive good news on average when the information is tailored to them. We find no evidence that increasing the time available to make choices leads to healthier choices, and find no evidence of long-term changes in habits. These results do not support a bounded rationality explanation for poor dietary choices.

Suggested Citation

  • Belot, Michèle & James, Jonathan & Spiteri, Jonathan, 2020. "Facilitating healthy dietary habits: An experiment with a low income population," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:eecrev:v:129:y:2020:i:c:s0014292120301793
    DOI: 10.1016/j.euroecorev.2020.103550
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    Cited by:

    1. Arni, Patrick & Dragone, Davide & Goette, Lorenz & Ziebarth, Nicolas R., 2021. "Biased health perceptions and risky health behaviors—Theory and evidence," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    2. Zarko Kalamov, 2021. "Evaluating Marginal Internalities: A New Approach," CESifo Working Paper Series 9476, CESifo.
    3. Vitt, Nicolai & James, Jonathan & Belot, Michèle & Vecchi, Martina, 2021. "Daily stressors and food choices: A lab experiment with low-SES mothers," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Health risks; Dietary habits; Bounded rationality; Heuristics; Information; Time availability; Laboratory experiments;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • H51 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Government Expenditures and Health
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness

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