Transcript Smarter Lunchrooms: Using Behavioral Economics to Improve Meal

Smarter Lunchrooms: Using
Behavioral Economics to Improve
Meal Selection
A guide to how schools can make small changes that
can help children make healthier choices in the
lunchroom without even knowing it.
GOAL: Identifying low-cost solutions that do not impact
revenue, but have a great impact on children's
nutrition.
Just, David R. and Brian Wansink (2009), “Better School
Meals on a Budget: Using Behavioral Economics and
Food Psychology to Improve Meal Selection,” Choices,
forthcoming.
What is Behavioral Economics?
Behavioral economics: combines the behavioral models of
psychology with the decision models of economics to help
highlight how biases in perception, memory, or thought
processes may influence purchasing decisions
GOAL:
finding the balance between profit, participation,
and costs
How does this apply to you?
You can use behavioral
economics to guide children’s
choices in a way that is subtle
enough that they are unaware of
the mechanisms, but effective
enough to help them make
healthier choices.
Just, David R. and Brian Wansink (2009), “Better
School Meals on a Budget: Using Behavioral
Economics and Food Psychology to Improve Meal
Selection,” Choices, forthcoming.
Move the Fruit: place fruits near
cash registers
Increase in fruit intake by as much
as 70%
Surprising Salad: introduce a salad
bar into the cafeteria
Increase reimbursable lunch
participation by 21%
You Choose Veggies: offer students
a choice of at least 2 options
Can increase consumption by as
much as 91%
Keep the Trays: use trays instead of
individual plates and glasses
Trayless cafeterias reduce nutrition
while increasing waste
Change the Defaults: make fruits
and vegetables the default
Works well when preferences are
ambiguous
Cash for Desserts: require students
to pay cash for unhealthy items like
desserts and sodas
Increased sales of nutritious foods
and decreased sales of less
nutritious foods
Just, David R. and Brian Wansink (2009), “Better
School Meals on a Budget: Using Behavioral
Economics and Food Psychology to Improve Meal
Selection,” Choices, forthcoming.
Total School Lunch Participation
What Does This Mean?
Total school lunch
participation increased when
the salad bar was introduced
into the school cafeteria.
What Does This Mean?
Students at schools with the
cash-only option buy more
nutritious foods than students
at the schools that offer debit
card only for payment.
Just, David R. and Brian Wansink (2009), “Better
School Meals on a Budget: Using Behavioral
Economics and Food Psychology to Improve Meal
Selection,” Choices, forthcoming.
Cash-Option vs. Debit Only Selections
Suggestions for How to Make Your Lunchroom Smarter:
http://www.smarterlunchrooms.org/pdfs/Suggestions.pdf
To attend consumer camp
next year visit:
http://www.mindlesseating.org/
consumer_camp.php
See What the Cornell
Chronicle Has to Say:
http://www.news.cornell.
edu/stories/Dec09/Xray
Carrots.html
Just, David R. and Brian Wansink (2009), “Better
School Meals on a Budget: Using Behavioral
Economics and Food Psychology to Improve Meal
Selection,” Choices, forthcoming.
Video Clips from
Consumer Camp 2010
To Learn More Visit:
http://www.smarterlunchrooms.org/
http://www.mindlesseating.com
http://www.foodpsychology.cornell.edu
Created By: Lauren Faldet