February 2006

Analyst of Waistline Decision-Making

Brian Wansink is watching what you eat. Wansink, PhD ’90, has observed people’s culinary habits since he based his dissertation on food consumption and advertising. “We make over 120 food-related decisions each day, but are pretty much unaware of why we decide what we decide,” Wansink says. “There are great opportunities for responsible marketers in this realm.”

Wansink has researched such food-related matters as whether the shape of a canteen can minimize dehydration, how consumers react to a food crisis such as mad cow disease, and why people buy food products they never use. His pursuit of data seemingly knows no bounds. In a stunning display of investigative fervor, Wansink invited students to a Super Bowl party and offered them identical appetizers and a choice of different-sized bowls in which to place the food. As soon as they helped themselves, their portions were weighed and the serving bowls taken away. An hour later, their leftovers were measured. Those who chose the larger bowls took more and left less.

As a faculty member at the University of Illinois, Wansink created and directed the Food and Brand Lab, which employs test kitchens, restaurants, and grocery stores to help understand the psychology behind food consumption. He is now the John S. Dyson Chair of Marketing in the Department of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell and director of that university’s Food and Brand Lab, which he also created. His latest book, Marketing Nutrition (University of Illinois Press), was published last July.

Wansink assures us he’s watching what he eats, too. “I eat both fast food and French food three times a week, but in reasonable portions,” he emailed the magazine last summer. “I ate at McDonald’s at six this morning.”

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