Cornell researchers just launched SmarterLunchrooms.org, a behavioral-psychology approach to get kids to make healthy food choices at school.
Cornell researchers just launched SmarterLunchrooms.org, a behavioral-psychology approach to get kids to make healthy food choices at school.
SmarterLunchrooms, an new and innovative school-lunch initiative, could change the conversation on how to get kids to eat healthy foods at school. Rather than replacing all junk foods with healthy items—which might not get eaten—researchers Brian Wansink, PhD, and David R. Just, PhD, think the answer lies in behavioral psychology. “When [health food] is forced on kids, they will resist and dislike it,” they say. “The smartest lunchroom [is] one that leads children to make healthy choices in the face of more tempting options.” Their new, USDA-supported Cornell Center for Behavioral Economics in Child Nutrition program uses simple behavioral psychology to get kids to eat better. Some of their findings:
• If a school requires cash (not debit) for cookies, children buy fewer cookies and more fruit.
• When schools put healthier foods at the front and end of a line, children take more than if they are in the middle. One New York school increased salad consumption by close to 300 percent simply by moving the salad bar 6 feet from the wall, in a natural bottleneck in the checkout line.
• Another school increased fruit sales by 105 percent by putting apples and oranges in a pretty, well-lit basket instead of a stainless-steel bowl.
Having read Wansink's book, Mindless Eating, it seems to me that these guys are on to something. But I still think we need to start with better foods in schools, combined with smart techniques for getting buy-in from kids themselves. What’s the right balance?
