TY - JOUR
T1 - Can smaller meals make you happy? Behavioral, neurophysiological, and psychological insights into motivating smaller portion choice
AU - Reimann, Martin
AU - Macinnis, Deborah
AU - Bechara, Antoine
N1 - Funding Information:
Martin Reimann (reimann@arizona.edu) is assistant professor of marketing, Eller College of Management, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721. Deborah MacInnis (macinnis@marshall.usc.edu) is Charles L. and Ramona I. Hilliard Professor of Business Administration and professor of marketing, Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089. Antoine Bechara (bechara@usc.edu) is professor of psychology and neuroscience, Department of Psychology and Brain & Creativity Institute, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089. This research builds on the first author’s doctoral dissertation, with the second and third authors serving as his academic advisors. For their guidance and review, the authors thank the editors, Koert Van Ittersum and Brian Wansink, and two reviewers. For feedback on earlier versions, the authors thank Mike E. Dawson, Kristin Diehl, Anthony Dukes, Naomi Mandel, John Monterosso, Gergana Nenkov, Oliver Schilke, Wendy Wood, and the participants of the decision neuroscience symposium at Temple University, and the Food & Brand Lab workshop at Cornell University. For assistance with data collection and analyses, the authors are indebted to Stephanie Castillo, Armin Heinecke, Bettina Heise, Ben Howie, Ulysses Hsu, and Aileen Krickau. Financial support was provided by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) grant no. R01CA152062, and the Board of the Association for Consumer Research.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 the Association for Consumer Research. All rights reserved.
PY - 2016/1/1
Y1 - 2016/1/1
N2 - Can smaller meals make you happy? Four studies show that offering consumers the choice between a full-sized food portion alone and a half-sized food portion paired with a small nonfood premium (e.g., a small Happy Meal toy or the mere possibility of winning frequent flyer miles) motivates smaller portion choice. Importantly, we investigate why this is the case and find that both food and the prospect of receiving a nonfood premium activate a common area of the brain (the striatum), which is associated with reward, desire, and motivation. Finally, we show that the choice results are mediated by a psychological desire for, but not by liking of, the premium. Notably, we find that choice of the smaller food portion is most pronounced when the probability of obtaining the premium is not disclosed compared to when the probability is disclosed or when the receipt of the same premium is stated as being certain. Taken together, motivating choice and consumption of less food may be successful if smaller portions are accompanied by an incentive.
AB - Can smaller meals make you happy? Four studies show that offering consumers the choice between a full-sized food portion alone and a half-sized food portion paired with a small nonfood premium (e.g., a small Happy Meal toy or the mere possibility of winning frequent flyer miles) motivates smaller portion choice. Importantly, we investigate why this is the case and find that both food and the prospect of receiving a nonfood premium activate a common area of the brain (the striatum), which is associated with reward, desire, and motivation. Finally, we show that the choice results are mediated by a psychological desire for, but not by liking of, the premium. Notably, we find that choice of the smaller food portion is most pronounced when the probability of obtaining the premium is not disclosed compared to when the probability is disclosed or when the receipt of the same premium is stated as being certain. Taken together, motivating choice and consumption of less food may be successful if smaller portions are accompanied by an incentive.
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U2 - 10.1086/684285
DO - 10.1086/684285
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85009364594
VL - 1
SP - 71
EP - 91
JO - Journal of the Association for Consumer Research
JF - Journal of the Association for Consumer Research
SN - 2378-1815
IS - 1
ER -