Adwait Khare

Habitual Behavior in American Eating Patterns: The Role of Meal Occasions

Based on literatures in cognitive resource conservation and contextual cue consistency, we study two types of habits-carryover and baseline-in the consumption of food nutrients. Carryover habit obtains when the level of a nutrient consumed in preceding meals influences its consumption in the current meal. Baseline habit obtains when a nutrients consumption systematically differs across meals. We test our hypotheses via a hierarchical linear model using a food consumption diary panel. Findings support our carryover habit and baseline habit dichotomy, as well as our predictions that carryover habit is stronger at breakfast and that within-meal carryover effects are stronger than across-meal carryover effects. (c) 2006 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc..

Daily, Week-Part, and Holiday Patterns in Consumers' Caloric Intake

The authors predict and demonstrate daily, week-part, and holiday patterns in consumers’ caloric intake using a national food consumption panel data set. They show that daily caloric intake is characterized by intermeal carryover effects, such that balancing between a preceding and a subsequent meal is stronger when both the meals are from the same day than from adjoining days. They also show that panelists’ caloric intake on weekends and holidays is systematically different from their intake on weekdays and nonholidays. Additional analyses reveal that the panelists are similar in their daily bracketing behavior and, to some extent, in their holiday bracketing behavior, but in terms of week-part bracketing behavior, panelists in the 25–35 age group, panelists in the 30-plus body mass index group, and panelists from professional heads of households show a large increase in weekend intake.

Survival Modeling of Discontinuation From Psychotherapy: A Consumer Decision‐Making Perspective

OBJECTIVE This study examines discontinuation of psychotherapy from a consumer decision-making perspective. Two plausible predictors, the level of illness and rate of progress from where the patient started, were examined as predictors of treatment discontinuation. METHOD Using data from 139 patients (45.5% women; mean age = 32.18 years) participating in a 12-week transdiagnostic cognitive-behavioral therapy program for anxiety, weekly assessments of anxiety severity were examined to investigate the extent to which level of anxiety and rate of improvement predicted treatment discontinuation. RESULTS Support was found for a significant interaction effect wherein at higher anxiety levels, rate of progress was less associated with discontinuation than at lower anxiety levels. CONCLUSION Faster rates of anxiety reduction are associated with greater likelihood of discontinuation when the client is at a lower level of anxiety, whereas rate of improvement is less associated with discontinuation if there remains continued impairment and room for improvement. As such, clinicians should monitor rates of improvement throughout treatment to help identify and evaluate patients at increased risk of premature discontinuation.

Flexible flexibility! Food categorization flexibility and utilitarian preference

Purpose This research proposes that high categorization flexibility’s positive influence on hedonic or affect-laden choice is attenuated by conservation and nutrition mind-sets. Further, categorization flexibility can also promote utilitarian or cognitively superior preference and may have a role in steering customers towards healthier dietary choices. Design/methodology/approach Two experimental studies document that the pro-utilitarian impact of food categorization flexibility can be facilitated by priming conservation mind-set and nutrition mind-sets. Findings Results show that conservation and nutrition mind-sets not only mitigate the earlier-demonstrated facilitative influence of food categorization flexibility on hedonic food preference, but also can facilitate utilitarian food preference. Originality/value The current research provides the first evidence that food categorization flexibility can facilitate both hedonic and utilitarian preferences. The findings contribute to literature streams on cat...