Interesting Results

Underestimation of Calorie Consumption

Previous research has shown that people tend to underestimate calorie consumption, and that the extent of underestimation increases as the number of calories in a meal increases. New research¹ shows that the positioning of restaurants where food comes from also influences the extent of underestimation. The calorie content of food from restaurants positioned as “healthy” was underestimated to a greater degree than food from restaurants without “healthy” positioning — even when the actual calorie content of the food was the same. The research showed that this underestimation effect also has implications for choices of side dishes. People choosing food from a “healthy” restaurant chose higher calorie side dishes and underestimated the calories in their side dishes more than those choosing from a restaurant that was not positioned as “healthy”.

¹ Chandon, Pierre and Brian Wansink (2007), “The Biasing Health Halos of Fast-Food Restaurant Health Claims: Lower Calorie Estimates and Higher Side-Dish Consumption Intentions”, Journal of Consumer Research, 34(3), 301-314.