I saw this on your blog and also found them surprising. 1 and 4 particularly as they contradict my own experience. Maybe we’re overestimating how often people make conscious deliberative decisions in these matters? Or how much difference the additional information makes (people probably have a rough idea which food has more calories and the health conscious choose the lesser anyway).
This is one of those times I hate ethical restrictions on social research, need more controlled data.
ETA Does the calorie observation hold true in non-restaurant settings? (E.g. grocery shopping?). Possibly the social elements of restaurant purchasing override calorie concerns, but they’re more prevalent in other places.
ETA Does the calorie observation hold true in non-restaurant settings? (E.g. grocery shopping?). Possibly the social elements of restaurant purchasing override calorie concerns, but they’re more prevalent in other places.
Probably. IME, when people eat in restaurants, usually it’s not exactly because they want to eat lightly.
For most of my life I’ve been poor. So when a menu includes calories I tend to maximize calories per dollar. Maybe people like me are cancelling out people on diets.
Outside restaurant settings I maximize calories per dollar when choosing a staple starch (rice/pasta/flour/potatoes) and then ignore calories completely and maximize tastiness per dollar with the rest of my budget (tomatoes usually win).
I saw this on your blog and also found them surprising. 1 and 4 particularly as they contradict my own experience. Maybe we’re overestimating how often people make conscious deliberative decisions in these matters? Or how much difference the additional information makes (people probably have a rough idea which food has more calories and the health conscious choose the lesser anyway).
This is one of those times I hate ethical restrictions on social research, need more controlled data.
ETA Does the calorie observation hold true in non-restaurant settings? (E.g. grocery shopping?). Possibly the social elements of restaurant purchasing override calorie concerns, but they’re more prevalent in other places.
Probably. IME, when people eat in restaurants, usually it’s not exactly because they want to eat lightly.
For most of my life I’ve been poor. So when a menu includes calories I tend to maximize calories per dollar. Maybe people like me are cancelling out people on diets.
Outside restaurant settings I maximize calories per dollar when choosing a staple starch (rice/pasta/flour/potatoes) and then ignore calories completely and maximize tastiness per dollar with the rest of my budget (tomatoes usually win).