Menu psychology study reveals how to help teenagers make healthier choices
The researchers asked 432 13-17-year-olds to take part in an online experiment. They presented the teenagers with different menus, with five starters, ten main courses and five desserts in separate sections, as you would normally find on a restaurant menu.
Each menu was slightly different: one which reduced the number of high calorie options on offer; one with menu positioning of low to high calorie meals; One which combined the availability & position interventions and one typical menu. The participants were asked to select a starter, main and dessert from each menu.
The experiment showed that the availability and the position interventions resulted in significantly lower calorie meal choices, compared to the choices made from the menu with no intervention.
The average number of calories for a selected meal reduced from 2,099.78 to 1,992.13 when the items were ordered from least to highest calorie content. The study also found that the positioning intervention had the biggest impact on main course choices.
The availability intervention reduced it from 2,134.26 kcal to 1,956.18 kcal. The group who had the combined availability and positioning intervention menu saw their meals calorie value plummet from 2,173.60 kcal to 1,884.44 kcal.
Dr Katie Edwards, research fellow in psychology who led the study, said: “Childhood obesity is a significant public health challenge. A key period for targeting dietary intervention is adolescence, when young people become more independent, making their own decisions about diet and socialising with friends more.
“Interventions have targeted healthy eating at home and at school, but we wanted to see how altering restaurant menus can impact the choices teenagers make.
“Main menu choices saw the biggest reduction in calories following the position intervention, going from 1,104.17 kcal to 1,045.16 kcal, while the availability intervention saw the biggest reduction in the starter option. While not all interventions saw statistically significant reductions for all courses, each intervention saw a significant reduction in the calorie content of the overall meals.”