Bernard Ruffieux

Do Consumers Not Care about Biotech Foods or Do They Just Not Read the Labels

This paper uses experimental econoic methods to present evidence that the absence of a negative effect on demand in reaction to products containing GMOs is in large measure due to the fact that customers do not notice the labelling.

A comparison of hedonic rating and demand-revealing auctions

We compare the inferences about consumer preferences that result from two different measurement techniques, a simplified hedonic rating system and a demand-revealing auction, for three separate groups of products. We find that product rankings are identical under the two measures if overall average ratings and bid prices are considered. At the level of the individual consumer, there are some differences in rankings obtained under the two measurement techniques.

Improving the effectiveness of nutritional information policies: assessment of unconscious pleasure mechanisms involved in food-choice decisions

The rise in obesity in many countries has led to the emergence of nutritional information policies that aim to change peoples diets. Changing an individuals diet is an ambitious goal, since numerous factors influence a persons food-choice decisions, many of which are made unconsciously. These frequently subconscious processes should not be underestimated in food-choice behavior, as they play a major role in food diet composition. In this review, research in cognitive experimental psychology and neuroscience provides the basis for a critical analysis of the role of pleasure in eating behaviors. An assessment of the main characteristics of nutritional policies is provided, followed by recent findings showing that food choices are guided primarily by automatic emotional processes. Neuroimaging and behavioral studies, which provide new insights into the relationships between emotions and food both in lean persons and in persons with eating disorders, are reported as well. Lastly, the argument is presented that future nutritional policies can be more effective if they associate healthy food with eating pleasure.

Validity of a questionnaire measuring motives for choosing foods including sustainable concerns

Since the 1990s, sustainability of diet has become an increasingly important concern for consumers. However, there is no validated multidimensional measurement of motivation in the choice of foods including a concern for sustainability currently available. In the present study, we developed a questionnaire that measures food choice motives during purchasing, and we tested its psychometric properties. The questionnaire included 104 items divided into four predefined dimensions (environmental, health and well-being, economic and miscellaneous). It was administered to 1000 randomly selected subjects participating in the Nutrinet-Santé cohort study. Among 637 responders, one-third found the questionnaire complex or too long, while one-quarter found it difficult to fill in. Its underlying structure was determined by exploratory factor analysis and then internally validated by confirmatory factor analysis. Reliability was also assessed by internal consistency of selected dimensions and test-retest repeatability. After selecting the most relevant items, first-order analysis highlighted nine main dimensions: labeled ethics and environment, local and traditional production, taste, price, environmental limitations, health, convenience, innovation and absence of contaminants. The model demonstrated excellent internal validity (adjusted goodness of fit index = 0.97; standardized root mean square residuals = 0.07) and satisfactory reliability (internal consistency = 0.96, test-retest repeatability coefficient ranged between 0.31 and 0.68 over a mean 4-week period). This study enabled precise identification of the various dimensions in food choice motives and proposed an original, internally valid tool applicable to large populations for assessing consumer food motivation during purchasing, particularly in terms of sustainability.

The effect of transaction costs on double auction markets

Abstract The ability of the continuous double auction to attain the competitive equilibrium outcome is one of the most robust results in experimental economics. In this paper, we study the sensitivity of the behavior of the double auction to the imposition of a monetary cost on the submission of offers to buy and sell. We find that, even with the transaction cost, prices converge toward the competitive equilibrium level. However, the presence of the transaction cost leads to lower quantity exchanged and market efficiency than in the competitive equilibrium.

Distributional Impacts of Fat Taxes and Thin Subsidies

We conducted an experiment to study the fiscal impacts of unhealthy food taxes and healthy food subsidies on very low and medium income women in France. The policies tend to be regressive and favour higher income consumers. Unhealthy food taxes increase prices paid more for lower than higher income women. Healthy food subsidies reduce the prices paid more for higher than lower income women. The effects arise because the pre‐policy diets of the higher income women tend to be healthier but also because the choices of the higher income women are more responsive to price changes.

Consumer knowledge about dietary fats: another French paradox?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to compare knowledge about dietary fats in some dairy products and other foods across consumers from France, (French‐speaking) Canada and the USA. A relation is explored between the types of information, knowledge levels and obesity predominance.Design/methodology/approach – A nine‐question nutritional test was developed and administered to three samples of consumers, respectively in Grenoble (France), Quebec, Canada and Ithaca, New York. In France, Canada and the USA the number of participants was respectively 100, 107 and 120. Participants were recruited randomly outside groceries stores and the test was administered directly through one‐on‐one interviews.Findings – Results indicate a significant gap in knowledge between consumers from the three countries studied. The level and quality of knowledge seems to be correlated with the nature of the informational background: a wider availability of information such as nutrition facts and public health recommendations on ...

Food Price Policies May Improve Diet but Increase Socioeconomic Inequalities in Nutrition

Unhealthy eating is more prevalent among women and people with a low socioeconomic status. Policies that affect the price of food have been proposed to improve diet quality. The studys objective was to compare the impact of food price policies on the nutritional quality of food baskets chosen by low-income and medium-income women. Experimental economics was used to simulate a fruit and vegetable subsidy and a mixed policy subsidizing healthy products and taxing unhealthy ones. Food classification was based on the Score of Nutritional Adequacy of Individual Foods, Score of Nutrients to Be Limited nutrient profiling system. Low-income (n = 95) and medium-income (n = 33) women selected a daily food basket first at current prices and then at policy prices. Energy density (ED) and the mean adequacy ratio (MAR) were used as nutritional quality indicators. At baseline, low-income women selected less healthy baskets than medium-income women (less fruit and vegetables, more unhealthy products, higher ED, lower MAR). Both policies improved nutritional quality (fruit and vegetable quantities increased, ED decreased, the MAR increased), but the magnitude of the improvement was often lower among low-income women. For instance, ED decreased by 5.3% with the fruit and vegetable subsidy and by 7.3% with the mixed subsidy, whereas decreases of 13.2 and 12.6%, respectively, were recorded for the medium-income group. Finally, both policies improved dietary quality, but they increased socioeconomic inequalities in nutrition.

Neural correlates of the healthiness evaluation processes of food labels

Objectives: This fMRI study evaluated the cognitive mechanisms and the cerebral substrates when evaluating the healthiness of food products from nutritional information displayed either with a traffic light (TL) system, a colored nutritional label, or with a guideline daily amount (GDA) system, a numeric label. We postulated that TL label would recruit emotional processes and activation of subjacent cerebral regions (e.g. insula and amygdala). On the contrary, the nutritional information presented in a GDA label, would recruit, due to its numeric format and higher complexity, supplementary cognitive processes and activation of related brain regions (e.g. middle and superior frontal as well as parietal cortices). Methods: We examined 50 healthy participants during an evaluation task on the healthiness of real food products from nutritional information only. Per total, 60 food products nutritional labels have been presented, with either colored (TL) or numeric (GDA) nutritional information and three levels of complexity of nutritional information. Results: In line with our predictions, evaluations based on GDA recruited prefrontal and parietal regions reported for analytic processes. Contrary to our predictions, the same network has been recruited when evaluations were based on TL. Finally, we found significant correlation between response time and the superior parietal lobule in the GDA condition. Discussion: Our results suggested that TL did not have an effect on the used strategy compared to GDA, based on calculation and arithmetic processes. Correlations between response time and brain activations suggested a significant involvement of the arithmetic mechanisms in the evaluation of food healthiness.

P001: Validation d’un questionnaire mesurant les motivations des consommateurs lors d’achats alimentaires en tenant compte de la durabilité

Introduction et but de l’etude Depuis les annees 1990, la durabilite de l’alimentation est devenue une preoccupation croissante pour les consommateurs. Cependant, il n’existe a ce jour aucun outil valide permettant de mesurer les motivations des consommateurs lors d’achat alimentaires en tenant compte de la durabilite. Nous avons par consequent developpe un questionnaire evaluant les motivations liees aux choix alimentaires lors de l’achat, et analyse ses proprietes psychometriques. Materiel et methodes Le questionnaire initial comprenait 104 items repartis en quatre dimensions predefinies (environnementale, sociale, economique et diverse). Il a ete administre a 1 000 sujets choisis aleatoirement parmi les participants de l’etude de cohorte Nutrinet-Sante. La structure sous-jacente du questionnaire a ete determinee par une analyse factorielle exploratoire puis validee par une analyse factorielle confirmatoire. De plus, la fiabilite a ete evaluee par la mesure de la coherence interne des dimensions identifiees et par la fidelite test-retest. Resultats et Analyse statistique Un total de 637 individus a complete le questionnaire. Apres avoir selectionne les items les plus pertinents, l’analyse factorielle a permis de degager neuf dimensions representant les motivations des consommateurs : l’ethique et l’environnement, la production locale et traditionnelle, le gout, le prix, les limitations d’achat liees a l’environnement, la sante, la simplicite d’utilisation, l’innovation et l’absence de produits chimiques. Le modele a demontre une excellente validite interne (adjusted goodness of fit index = 0,97; standardized root mean square residuals = 0,07) et une fiabilite satisfaisante (coherence interne = 0,96, coefficient kappa de Cohen ajuste sur les biais et la prevalence se situant entre 0,31 et 0,68 sur une periode moyenne de 4 semaines). Conclusion Cette etude a permis l’identification precise de differentes motivations liees aux achats alimentaires et propose un outil original, multidimensionnel, valide et applicable a de larges populations pour evaluer les motivations des consommateurs au cours de leurs achats alimentaires, particulierement en termes de durabilite de l’alimentation.