Last Wednesday, October 10 at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University the CIHF October 2018 Roundtable – Dining and Service Innovations Across the Health Care Continuum took place. I had the pleasure to participate as a visiting fellow at Cornell.
This roundtable was aimed at the topic of innovations and successes around ‘hospitality services’ applied in various parts of the health care system. Among the focus for discussion will be dining and a variety of support services that enhance the experience and potentially the outcomes of care. It was organized by the Cornell Institute for Healthy Futures Roundtable which is aiming to promote innovations and successes around ‘hospitality services’ applied in various parts of the health care system.
One of the main topics, which I am focusing on right now, is the impact of information on consumer behavior is a classic topic in economics, and there has recently been particular interest in whether providing nutritional information leads consumers to choose healthier diets. “The Impact of Information Disclosure on Consumer Behavior: Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment of Calorie Labels on Restaurant Menus” by Cawley, Susskind and Willage. They conducted a randomized controlled field experiment in two full-service restaurants, in which the control group received the usual menus and the treatment group received the same menus but with calorie counts. They estimated that the labels resulted in a 3.0% reduction in calories ordered, with the reduction occurring in appetizers and entrees but not drinks or desserts. Exposure to the information also increases consumers’ support for requiring calorie labels by 9.6%.
I presented the recent study I am carrying on, with Michele Lefebvre, Shihua Huang, Zoey Yang and Miguel Gomez, across the Cornell Dining Halls: Understanding college students attitude for a blend mushroom-meat burger under different information.
