The conference on Food Safety and Nutrition in 2050 – organised by Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety of the European Commission – provided an opportunity for dialogue among global stakeholders on the emerging challenges to the food chain and the role of future policy-making in addressing those challenges. The conference also provided the opportunity to foster a dialogue on consumers' expectations for safe, nutritious, quality and sustainable food and the role of food science, technology and innovation in achieving them. Held on 17 July 2015 in Milan, Italy.

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Applying behavioural insights to
policy making: Health and
nutrition
Michael Hallsworth

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About the team

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What are Behavioural Insights?
Behavioural
Insights
Psychology
Anthropology
Economics
Public Policy
Understanding how people behave in practice so
that we can design policy better

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Behavioural insights adds another dimension
Behavioural Insights
1. Regulation
2. Incentives
3. Information

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Two different ways of applying behavioural
insights
High-level policy
(goals, rules, structures, funding, “terms of the debate”)
Opportunistic delivery
(timing, wording, design, friction costs, trial and error)
Incremental
change
“Stepchange”

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High-level policy: Obesity
We need a new policy narrative for obesity.

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Three statements about obesity
1. Consuming food is often a “mindless” response to our
environment.
2. The past thirty years have seen a massive increase in
the supply of calories and our exposure to these
calories.
3. Physical activity brings a variety of health benefits.
However, it is mainly an increase in calorie intake, not a
decline in physical activity levels, that has caused the
obesity problem. Increasing activity alone is unlikely to
be the solution.

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Mindless eating: We eat what is in front of us
7,7
4,6
5,6
3,1
6,5
3,8
6,1
3,5
Close and Visible Close and not-
visible
Far and visible Far and not visible
Actual Number of Sweets Consumed
Estimated Number of Sweets Consumed
Wansink, B., Painter, J. E., & Lee, Y. K. (2006). The office candy dish: proximity's influence on
estimated and actual consumption. International Journal of Obesity, 30(5), 871-875.
Food that is closer and more visible to us is more likely to be eaten.

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Mindless eating: We underestimate the
calories in a “healthy” meal
870
1085
1170
779
Actual calories Perceived calories Actual calories Perceived calories
Adapted from Chandon, P. (2013). How package design and packaged-based marketing claims
lead to overeating. Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, 35(1), 7-31.
“Unhealthy” meal “Healthy” meal
+ 25% -33%

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Portion sizes have increased greatly in the last 30 years.
Levitsky, D. A., & Pacanowski, C. R. (2011). Free will and the obesity epidemic. Public Health Nutrition, 15(1), 126
Calorie supply: Portion sizes

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Some policy options
1. Portion size reduction
2. Reformulation
3. Substitution
4. Education
• I will not shop when I am
hungry
• I will fill half my plate with fruit
or vegetables
• I will eat meals from smaller
plates
• I will not store snacks at eye
level in my refrigerator or
cupboard
Supply of calories
Consumer choices

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Test and adapt policies
Define the
outcome
Understand
the context
Build your
intervention
Test, learn,
adapt

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Conclusion
• People tend to think they have more control over their eating than
they do.
• This leads to unsuccessful attempts to control eating based on
willpower.
• The psychology of eating suggests that portion size reduction and
food reformulation may be particularly effective.
• Education can be effective, but only if it reflects the habitual,
contextual, automatic nature of eating.
• We should test and iterate policy interventions, often in a low-cost
way – BIT can give examples of how to do this.

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Michael Hallsworth
michael.hallsworth@behaviouralinsights.co.uk

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