IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/qmktec/v20y2022i1d10.1007_s11129-021-09244-z.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Industry-funded research and bias in food science

Author

Listed:
  • Anita Rao

    (University of Chicago)

Abstract

Is industry-funded scientific research likely to be biased towards finding positive results? Is industry more likely to work on topics with likely positive outcomes? Using publication-level data and focusing on food groups that are typically considered healthy, I evaluate each article’s abstract using crowdsourcing tools. I find little evidence to support selection on topics with positive outcomes, but industry is less likely to work on topics classified as unrelated to health. Conditional on a topic, I find that industry-funded research is 3.2% more positive compared to non-industry funded research with grains that receive heavier funding responsible for most of the effect. Industry-funded research is also more likely to receive a mention in certain industry newsletters. Coupled with firm incentives to use science to further their marketing efforts, such increased trade press coverage might play a role in shaping consumers’ opinions on what is healthy.

Suggested Citation

  • Anita Rao, 2022. "Industry-funded research and bias in food science," Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME), Springer, vol. 20(1), pages 39-67, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:kap:qmktec:v:20:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1007_s11129-021-09244-z
    DOI: 10.1007/s11129-021-09244-z
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11129-021-09244-z
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11129-021-09244-z?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Esther F Myers & J Scott Parrott & Deborah S Cummins & Patricia Splett, 2011. "Funding Source and Research Report Quality in Nutrition Practice-Related Research," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(12), pages 1-13, December.
    2. Stefano Dellavigna & Johannes Hermle, 2017. "Does Conflict of Interest Lead to Biased Coverage? Evidence from Movie Reviews," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 84(4), pages 1510-1550.
    3. David Dranove & Ginger Zhe Jin, 2010. "Quality Disclosure and Certification: Theory and Practice," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 48(4), pages 935-963, December.
    4. Levine, J. & Gussow, J.D. & Hastings, D. & Eccher, A., 2003. "Authors' financial relationships with the food and beverage industry and their published positions on the fat substitute olestra," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 93(4), pages 664-669.
    5. Josh Lerner & Jean Tirole, 2006. "A Model of Forum Shopping," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(4), pages 1091-1113, September.
    6. Jonathan Reuter & Eric Zitzewitz, 2006. "Do Ads Influence Editors? Advertising and Bias in the Financial Media," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 121(1), pages 197-227.
    7. Juan Zhang & Qi Yu & Fashan Zheng & Chao Long & Zuxun Lu & Zhiguang Duan, 2016. "Comparing keywords plus of WOS and author keywords: A case study of patient adherence research," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 67(4), pages 967-972, April.
    8. Diels, Johan & Cunha, Mario & Manaia, Célia & Sabugosa-Madeira, Bernardo & Silva, Margarida, 2011. "Association of financial or professional conflict of interest to research outcomes on health risks or nutritional assessment studies of genetically modified products," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 197-203, April.
    9. Maira Bes-Rastrollo & Matthias B Schulze & Miguel Ruiz-Canela & Miguel A Martinez-Gonzalez, 2013. "Financial Conflicts of Interest and Reporting Bias Regarding the Association between Sugar-Sweetened Beverages and Weight Gain: A Systematic Review of Systematic Reviews," PLOS Medicine, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(12), pages 1-9, December.
    10. Vartanian, L.R. & Schwartz, M.B. & Brownell, K.D., 2007. "Effects of soft drink consumption on nutrition and health: A systematic review and meta-analysis," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 97(4), pages 667-675.
    11. Lenard I Lesser & Cara B Ebbeling & Merrill Goozner & David Wypij & David S Ludwig, 2007. "Relationship between Funding Source and Conclusion among Nutrition-Related Scientific Articles," PLOS Medicine, Public Library of Science, vol. 4(1), pages 1-6, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Marie A. Bragg & Brian Elbel & Marion Nestle, 2020. "Food Industry Donations to Academic Programs: A Cross-Sectional Examination of the Extent of Publicly Available Data," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(5), pages 1-15, March.
    2. Gary Sacks & Devorah Riesenberg & Melissa Mialon & Sarah Dean & Adrian J Cameron, 2020. "The characteristics and extent of food industry involvement in peer-reviewed research articles from 10 leading nutrition-related journals in 2018," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(12), pages 1-15, December.
    3. Rick Harbaugh & John W. Maxwell & Beatrice Roussillon, 2011. "Label Confusion: The Groucho Effect of Uncertain Standards," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 57(9), pages 1512-1527, February.
    4. Stefano Dellavigna & Johannes Hermle, 2017. "Does Conflict of Interest Lead to Biased Coverage? Evidence from Movie Reviews," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 84(4), pages 1510-1550.
    5. Campbell, Norah & Mialon, Melissa & Reilly, Kathryn & Browne, Sarah & Finucane, Francis M., 2020. "How are frames generated? Insights from the industry lobby against the sugar tax in Ireland," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 264(C).
    6. Anthony Heyes & Sandeep Kapur & Peter W. Kennedy & Steve Martin & John W. Maxwell, 2020. "But What Does It Mean? Competition between Products Carrying Alternative Green Labels When Consumers Are Active Acquirers of Information," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 7(2), pages 243-277.
    7. Emanuele Bajo & Marco Bigelli & Carlo Raimondo, 2020. "Ownership ties, conflict of interest, and the tone of news," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 26(3), pages 560-578, June.
    8. Casarico, Alessandra & Tonin, Mirco, 2018. "Pay-What-You-Want to Support Independent Information: A Field Experiment on Motivation," IZA Discussion Papers 11366, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. Louis-Sidois, Charles & Mougin, Elisa, 2023. "Silence the media or the story? Theory and evidence of media capture," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    10. Blind, Knut & Kenney, Martin & Leiponen, Aija & Simcoe, Timothy, 2023. "Standards and innovation: A review and introduction to the special issue," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(8).
    11. Barrios, John & Lancieri, Filippo Maria & Levy, Joshua & Singh, Shashank & Valletti, Tommaso M. & Zingales, Luigi, 2024. "The conflict-of-interest discount in the marketplace of ideas," Working Papers 348, The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, George J. Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the State.
    12. Thomas Guillemaud & Eric Lombaert & Denis Bourguet, 2016. "Conflicts of Interest in GM Bt Crop Efficacy and Durability Studies," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(12), pages 1-14, December.
    13. Graham Beattie & Ruben Durante & Brian Knight & Ananya Sen, 2021. "Advertising Spending and Media Bias: Evidence from News Coverage of Car Safety Recalls," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(2), pages 698-719, February.
    14. Esther F Myers & J Scott Parrott & Deborah S Cummins & Patricia Splett, 2011. "Funding Source and Research Report Quality in Nutrition Practice-Related Research," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(12), pages 1-13, December.
    15. Béné, Christophe, 2022. "Why the Great Food Transformation may not happen – A deep-dive into our food systems’ political economy, controversies and politics of evidence," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    16. Scott, C. & Hawkins, B. & Knai, C., 2017. "Food and beverage product reformulation as a corporate political strategy," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 172(C), pages 37-45.
    17. Gorman, Dennis M. & Conde, Eugenia, 2007. "Conflict of interest in the evaluation and dissemination of "model" school-based drug and violence prevention programs," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 422-429, November.
    18. Anthony Heyes & Steve Martin, 2018. "Inefficient NGO labels: Strategic proliferation and fragmentation in the market for certification," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(2), pages 206-220, June.
    19. Yan Lu & Debanjan Mitra & David Musto & Sugata Ray, 2020. "Can Brands Circumvent Marketing Regulations? Exploiting Umbrella Branding in Financial Markets," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 39(1), pages 71-91, January.
    20. Raymond, Collin & Taylor, Sarah, 2021. "“Tell all the truth, but tell it slant”: Documenting media bias," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 670-691.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Empirical industrial organization; Consumer protection; Industry funding; Bias in science;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L20 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - General
    • M31 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Marketing and Advertising - - - Marketing
    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:qmktec:v:20:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1007_s11129-021-09244-z. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.