Rotman Management — Spring 2017

122 / Rotman Management Spring 2017

bags; and price increases in gasoline have led consum-

ers to substitute more fuel-efficient vehicles and encour-

aged automakers to manufacture new vehicles with better

fuel economy.

Would a surcharge on unhealthy foods work as well as

these other sin taxes? In contrast to other types of sin tax-

es, we felt that a tax for less-healthy food might not func-

tion in a straightforward economic manner. For example,

people may believe that ‘higher-quality foods cost more’ or

are more ‘special’, thereby increasing the demand for un-

healthy meals that have been taxed. In addition, some peo-

ple may perceive the higher price to be a sign of healthiness

or freshness — rather than as a surcharge on unhealthiness.

Similar to price surcharges, we felt that unhealthy la-

bels on their own would have complex effects, because peo-

ple may use food labels to signal identities that they would

like to portray. For instance, gender stereotypes can signifi-

cantly affect the preference for healthy vs. unhealthy foods.

Research shows that a preference for healthier foods is rat-

ed as ‘more feminine’ and ‘less masculine’; and that women

are regarded as ‘more attractive’ when they eat fewer calo-

ries. However, unhealthy labels could backfire for men —

for whom eating high-fat foods is associated with masculin-

ity, whereas healthy eating is perceived as ‘wimpy’.

Men have also been shown to be less inclined to choose

products that are associated with women, and this effect is

magnified in public settings. Therefore, an unhealthy label

could actually encourage men to choose these items — par-

ticularly if they are eating with other men.

We also felt that the selection of unhealthy food might

reflect a temporary goal state. For example, unhealthy prod-

ucts tend to be preferred when a hedonic (i.e. pleasure) goal

is salient. Because unhealthy products are often perceived

as tastier, people often believe that if they work hard, they

have earned the right to indulge. Thus, an unhealthy label

could be construed as a sign of true indulgence and may ac-

tually encourage consumption.

We hypothesized that men would be more sensitive

to price increases when dining alone, but that a price in-

crease may not decrease unhealthy food consumption for

men when they are dining with others. We also expected

that an unhealthy label alone might backfire for men.

For women, we expected that an unhealthy label would

be more potent than a price surcharge. However, we ex-

pected that the combined effect of a price surcharge and

an unhealthy label (i.e., an ‘unhealthy surcharge’) would

be effective in reducing unhealthy choices for both men

and women.

As expected, we found significant gender effects: Men

significantly reduced unhealthy food choice when a simple

surcharge was added to unhealthy items, compared with

Almost half of our meals are now eaten in restaurants.

People often believe that if they work hard,

they have earned the right to indulge.