Are incentives insufficient to encourage healthy eating? A recent study by researchers at the University of Buffalo in New York seems to indicate that’s the case.
Participants in the study were given a budget to shop for their family. In cases where the price of junk food was raised, healthier options were selected as an alternative. This would make sense: there is incentive to purchase the healthier, more economical options.
Yet there was a disturbing outcome when the prices of the healthy food was lowered: the mothers ‘treated’ their family by actually purchasing more junk food with the money they were saving.
Obviously, this study is tied to the fact that the mothers were given a particular budget, and therefore could have simply been aiming to spend the entire amount. But it begs the question of barriers: are disincentives more powerful than incentives?
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I wonder what the outcome would have been if they received the extra cash? What would have happened if they used their own money?
How interesting…do you have a link to the study?
Whoops! I incorrectly coded the link to the study. Added now