Time (In)Consistent Food Choice of Children and Teenagers

We document an increasing capacity to resist temptation in a time consistent manner from children to teenagers. Competencies develop in two steps: From age 8 on many pupils naively plan and after age 12 successfully implement strategies to resist temptation. Our evidence comes from a food choice experiment that we conducted with comparable participant pools of elementary and high school pupils in 5 different school years. We offer tangible choices in terms of apples and chocolate. On the first day pupils state their preference regarding tomorrows consumption and on the second day they pick one food item for immediate consumption. We find that most of the 6 to 7 year olds consistently choose chocolate for future and immediate consumption. With pupils age 8 to 12 we observe an increase of time inconsistent behavior - pupils naively planning to consume an apple tomorrow and then choosing chocolate for immediate consumption. From age 14 on a larger share of pupils is sophisticated in the sense that they plan to and actually do consume an apple.