Want to lose weight while eating out? Maybe you need to find an adult Happy Meal.
Research from the UAβs Eller College of Management suggests that adding a non-food reward to a meal may help you feel satisfied with a smaller portion.
Martin Reimann and his colleagues have conducted numerous experiments into the βHappy Meal effectβ and how non-food rewards can cause people to eat smaller, healthier portions. Reimann, an assistant professor of marketing, began researching the effect when he was a graduate student at the University of Southern California.
βItβs obviously tough to change peopleβs behavior, so I didnβt really have any expectations from the get-go,β Reimann said.
In one experiment detailed in the Journal of Experimental Psychology, 78 percent of children given the option between a full sandwich and a half sandwich paired with headphones chose the smaller portion.
This effect continues to work over time. A group of adults were more likely to go for the smaller portion three days in a row βeven if the reward is uncertain or small,β Reimann said. In that trial, participants were offered the smaller portion and a chance to win a gift card or frequent-flier miles in a lottery.
Surprisingly, after logging their food over that three days, Reimann and his colleagues also found that people were not overcompensating and eating larger meals later.
The effect held up outside the laboratory as well.
A study that Reimann and his colleagues conducted at a Subway restaurant found that customers who intended to buy a full-sized sandwich opted more often for a smaller sub as the reward for a cash lottery increased.
One theory into how the Happy Meal effect works is based on brain chemistry.
Some scientists hypothesize that certain chemicals in the brain called neurotransmitters, such as dopamine, act as a currency in the brain to measure many different kinds of rewards.
A larger portion of food would produce a larger surge of dopamine in the brain.
A smaller portion of food with some non-food reward may mimic the effect of a larger portion of food by producing more dopamine thanks to the non-food reward.
This would leave you with the same satisfaction as if you had consumed a larger portion.
Reimann and his colleagues have data to support this hypothesis.
In some experiments, the scientists studied the activity in participantsβ brains when they were making the decision between a full portion and a half portion with a non-food reward.
They found that there were similar levels of activity in the brain in areas associated with the reward system.
Reimann and Kristen Lane, a first-year doctoral student studying marketing, wanted to understand how body mass index affected a personβs decision to opt for smaller portion sizes.
Reimann and Lane conducted follow-up studies at Tucson schools to explore this idea and also test it in a way that may be more applicable to a real-world restaurant.
βBasically, I got to feed kids McDonaldβs, which is cool as a field researcher because they love you, and that was awesome,β Lane said.
Instead of cutting a sandwich in half, the scientists replaced the sides with more healthful options or removed them altogether.
βWe wanted to make it economically feasible if we were going to suggest it to food companies,β Lane said.
They found that 13 percent of students chose the smaller meal with the toy included. This effect was not dependent on a childβs BMI, and the students who ate the smaller portions did not overeat later, according to surveys completed by parents afterwards.
While this effect may be promising, Reimann and Lane recommend that more research be done. This approach may become less effective when its newness wears off, which may lead to people trying to maximize their calories per dollar spent.
One day, Lane hopes this research can be used to inform government policy or voluntary regulation at food companies.
βSeeing maybe a push to offer a healthy option and only including the toy in that option to me would be ideal,β Lane said.
