Do Info Campaigns Change Health Behaviors?
Monday, January 17th, 2011
Probably not.
Emotional messaging, hard-hitting incentives and designed experiences all change behavior not information. For a case in point check out the article and interview:
Does Calorie-Labeling in Restaurants Lead to Healthier Eating?
Some details:
“In January 2009 King Country in Washington State, which includes Seattle and some of its suburbs, started requiring chains to make nutrition information available for all of its offerings, including visible calorie counts (which also needed to be on drive-through boards by August of that year). So researchers compared consumers’ food choices at several locations of the Mexican-style restaurant called Taco Time before and after calorie numbers were posted—as well as with Taco Times that were outside of the regulated area.”
A year of data showed zero change in eating habits. Having calorie data does not change eating behavior because we are not making analytical data-driven decision about how we eat.
