Reducing Monotony for Breakfast: A Goal-Based Account

• Main Authors: Cadario, Romain, Morewedge, Carey K
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Subjects: Consumer behavior; Consumption; Food; Kahneman, Daniel (1934-2024); Meals
• ISSN: 0098-9258

People around the world eat different foods at different times of the day. However, there is a common conception that individuals are more likely to repeatedly eat similar food for breakfast while looking for more variety at dinner. Prior research show that carryover habits are indeed stronger for breakfast than for lunch or dinner (Khare and Inman 2006). Khare and Inman suppose - but not test - that this effect is due to time scarcity such that people have more time to choose what to eat in the evening. Literature in variety-seeking throughout the day show mixed findings such that variety-seeking is lower in the afternoon (Roehm and Roehm 2004) or in the morning (Gulio et al. 2018), due to circadian variations in stimulation. Our research differ in two ways. First, our explanation is based on utilitarian vs. hedonic goals, rather than time scarcity and body temperature. Second, we examine the moderating rather than mediating role of hedonic goals on the relationship between time of the day and variety-seeking. In other words, we examine the impact of a change in hedonic goal on variety-seeking over time and we show that it is higher for breakfast than for lunch than for dinner. Consistent with previous literature, we posit that variety-seeking over time (throughout the week) will be lower for breakfast than for lunch than for dinner (across day). Building on the literature on hedonic consumption and goals, our central prediction considers the interplay between hedonic goals and meals. We theorize that the impact of a change in hedonic goals on variety-seeking over time is decreasing from breakfast to dinner. In studies 1A (USA) and IB (France), we use longitudinal food consumption data for panel members over one week and three meals per day. We know exactly what combination of food items was consumed for each meal. We used the data at the day level so that we have seven observations for each meal of each panel member. Monotony in choice is equal to the number of times the specific consumption (combination of different food items) on day d has been consumed on other days of the week, for meal m of individual i. Variety was computed as the opposite of monotony and ranges from 1 = no variety over time to 7 = perfect variety over time. Using multilevel mixed-effects regressions, we find that variety-seeking over time is lower for breakfast than for lunch than for dinner. To test our main prediction, we examine the influence of a proxy for hedonic goals (week