Does the magnitude of relative calorie distance affect food consumption?

Both secondary data and experimental studies offer mixed results regarding the effect of calorie information on consumed calories. Our theoretical model provides foundations to explain the heterogeneous responses found in the empirical literature by identifying two opposing forces affecting calorie intake. Informing consumers about the calorie content of food alternatives can lead to low-calorie food decisions. However, the relative calorie distance between food items can induce temptation and reduce the effectiveness of the calorie information. We implement laboratory and restaurant experiments with incentivized food choices where we exogenously manipulate the magnitude and salience of the calorie difference between food alternatives. We document that providing calorie information increases the propensity to choose the low-calorie option in the range of 3–10 percentage points. But calorie distance discounts the effect of information by 3 percentage points. Hence, the impact of calorie information depends on the relative magnitudes of these two opposing forces.