Last Wednesday night we joined 3 guest speakers in a panel about interesting facts in food choices. To start with, they introduced their study fields and some stories in their research. One interesting fact that I learned is that different signals can have different significant influence on people’s behaviors when they are making a decision on food choices. For example, the distance that you place food determines the convenience of reaching it. This gives a signal to us and the one that is closer to us will be eaten at a higher frequency. So if you are on a diet, do not place chips nearby. Hah.

Another experiment that was mentioned during the panel is also thought-provoking. In this experiment, researchers gave the first group of children directly the carrots. The other group of children was given different choices among vegetables. Surprisingly, the result shows that the group that was given different choices consume more carrots than the other group. One explanation of this experiment is that the children that were allowed to choose among different vegetables had to make a decision among vegetables and the process of making a decision was a process in which these children kept convincing themselves of the choice they had made. Once the decision was made they will be committed to it and use actions to “prove” it is right. Therefore, they have a tendency to have more carrots. I think this result has great significance in leading consumers behaviors.

Additionally, one fact that is really fun is that one professor said they can track the consumption of food all around Cornell throughout the year. They found that unhealthy food consumption was going up in a certain semester. Then, a peak will be reached in the week of final exams. Afterwards, it seemed “reset” and everything went back to normal. It is a reminder of us that even in the exam week, just do not forget to EAT HEALTHY! Hah, wish you all have a nice final week!