Using psychological terms such as cognitive dissonance and confirmation bias, this study reveals how individual consumers inadequately process (food safety) information, pay limited attention to signals, and make purchase decisions that are bias towards their initial choices. While it is...

Previous studies have found underestimation of risk, or overconfidence, to be pervasive. In this paper, we model overconfidence as a reduction in perceived variance. We generalize the analysis of Sandmo and examine the effects of competition on firms displaying overconfidence. Cases for both...

A key goal of the Healthy, Hungry-Free Kids Act of 2010 is to ensure that children have access to healthy foods in schools. While the new policy mandates that healthy items must be included on the lunch line—and even that children must take certain foods—there is concern both over whether...

This paper explores the factors that impact insurance choices. Specially designed survey questions allow one to fully observe the demand tendency by the farmers and partially observe the supply tendency by the insurance company. A joint estimation of insurance decision by both supply and demand...

Laddering interviews indicate that a leading reason younger children do not select fruit is because braces and small mouths make it difficult to eat. Older children – especially females – avoid it because it is messy and makes them look unattractive when eating it. One solution for both sets...

In the context of food, convenience is generally associated with less healthy foods. Given the reality of present-biased preferences, if convenience was associated with healthier foods and less healthy foods were less convenient, people would likely consume healthier foods. This study examines...

Approximately 31 million children enroll in the National School Lunch Program and nearly 1/3 of children between the ages of 6 and 19 are considered obese. What if the school food environment made healthy food choices easier for children? One overlooked scalable alternative involves students...

Rational choice theory commonly assumes that the presence of unselected choices cannot impact which among the remaining choices is selected-often referred to as independence of irrelevant alternatives. We show that such seemingly irrelevant alternatives influence choice in a school lunch...

ABSTRACTLabels such as ‘Large’ or ‘Super‐size’ are often used to describe portion sizes. How do these normative labels influence consumer choice and how much they ultimately either consume or waste? Although one might believe that firms use normative labels to impact choice behavior...

How would a possible food safety scare influence food consumption? Using techniques from experimental psychology, a study of 103 lunchtime participants suggests that a food scare--avian influenza--would decrease consumption of the affected food by 17% if the subjects believed it was naturally...