New Research Methods
To help people eat better, we need to understand the "whys" behind their behavior. This section explains research methods we use that help answer the "why's" behind food psychology.
The Largest Last Supper: Depictions of Portion Size Increased Over the Millennium
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Portion sizes have been noticeably increasing in past years, in both everyday life and art. We examined 52 depiction of "The Last Supper" and found that the relative size of bread, main dishes, and plates has gradually increased over time.
Biosecurity, Terrorism, and Food Consumption Behavior: Using Experimental Psychology to Analyze Choices Involving Fear
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How would a possible food safety scare influence food consumption? We performed an experimental psychology experiment on 103 lunchtime participants to find out.
Choice Under Restrictions
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No individual lives without restrictions. We have developed a framework to examine how such restrictions impact consumers in order to maximize compliance.
Can Generic Advertising Alleviate Consumer Concerns Over Food Scares?
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We utilized experimental economics to determine whether knowledge of food borne diseases such as mad cow disease impacts consumers' willingness to pay for beef products.
Using Laddering to Understand and Leverage a Brand's Equity
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This describes an in–depth interviewing method that generates easy insights.
Building a Successful Convenience Panel
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A easy way to inexpensively collect preference and consumption data from real consumers.
Predicting the Future of Consumer Panels
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Consumer panels are a very useful tool in marketing research, and will continue to be for years to come. The incorporation of smart–voice and personalized technologies can enhance consumer data collection, but it also has the potential to commodify market research and stall progress.
New Techniques to Generate Key Marketing Insights
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Laddering and prototyping analyses are new techniques that can help provide more in–depth information about how a consumer is behaving and why.
Methods and Measures that Profile Heavy Users
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Here is how to most effectively profile heavy users for a product or food.
Increasing Cognitive Response Sensitivity
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Verbal protocols can be very useful if these measures are taken.
Developing and Validating Useful Consumer Prototypes
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A prototyping technique that helps us "walk in the shoes" of consumers.
Estimating an Advertisement's Impact on One's Consumption of a Brand
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Several versatile, high–penetration products are turning to advertising to encourage loyal consumers to continue to choose their brands. We find that volume estimates best approximate the actual consumption of heavy users and describe menu–planning promotion strategies that appeal to both heavy and occasional users.
