Brian Wansink
Encyclopedia
Brian Wansink is an American
professor
in the fields of consumer behavior and nutritional science. He is a former Executive Director of the USDA's Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion
(CNPP) (2007–2009).
Wansink is best known for his work on consumer behavior and food and for popularizing terms such as "mindless eating" and "health halos." His research has focused on how our immediate environment (supermarkets, packaging, homes, pantries, and tablescapes) influences eating habits and preferences. Wansink holds the John S. Dyson Endowed Chair in the Applied Economics and Management Department at Cornell University
. He is the author of over 100 academic articles and books, including the best-selling book Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think
and Marketing Nutrition
(2005) . He is a 2007 recipient of the humorous Ig Nobel Prize
and was named ABC World News Person of the Week on January 4, 2008.
Having been referred to as the "Sherlock Holmes
of Food" and the "Wizard of Why", Wansink and his Food and Brand Lab
have been credited with improving the deeper scientific understanding of food eating and food shopping. A fundamental finding is that our environment—such as the way a food is labeled, presented, stored, or served—biases our eating habits and taste preferences. A large part of eating less and eating better, he argues, involves making small changes to our homes and to the daily "mindless" patterns of our lives. In underscoring this, the first and last sentence of his book, Mindless Eating
states, "The best diet is the one you don't know you're on."
The studies from the lab have been credited with the development of the 100 calorie packs and the Small Plate Movement
, as well as discovering and quantifying a wide range of basic, every day insights:
of Dutch
heritage, to John, a bakery production worker, and to Naomi, a legal secretary. He received his Ph.D. in Consumer behaviour
in 1990 from Stanford University
, following a B.S. from Wayne State College
(Nebraska) in 1982 and an M.A. from Drake University
in 1984.
He was a Marketing Professor at the Tuck School of Business
at Dartmouth College
(1990–1994) and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania
(1995–1997), and he was a Marketing, Nutritional Science, Advertising, and Agricultural Economics Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
(1997–2005) before moving to Cornell University
(2005 to date). Wansink has also been a Visiting Professor at the Vrije Universiteit
(Amsterdam) and Insead
(Fountainbleau, France), and he was a Visiting Research Scientist at the U.S. Army Soldier Systems Center
(Natick, MA) where he helped design ways to improve the acceptability and consumption of MREs (Meal, Ready-to-Eat) for the United States Army
.
Wansink founded the Food and Brand Lab
http://www.FoodPsychology.Cornell.edu/ in 1997 at the University of Illinois and the Consumer Education Foundation
in 1999. In 2005 he moved both to Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Since 2006, Wansink has written a monthly column on food behavior for MSNBC
entitled Chew on This. In July 2007, Wansink joined Prevention.com as one of their two nutrition columnists, writing the column Food Think with Wansink.
From 2007-2009, Wansink was granted a leave of absence from Cornell to accept a White House appointment as the fourth Executive Director of the USDA's Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion
(CNPP). At CNPP, he oversaw the development of the 2010 Dietary Guidelines, the Healthy Eating Index, the Cost of Raising a Child Index, and he is charged with promoting the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, in the form of MyPyramid
. He served with the Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services
, Nancy Montanez Johner
.
In contrast to focusing on the macro-food environment as being the cause of the American obesity
problem, Wansink's work focuses on the intermediate micro-environment that he contends people can control—their home and their daily habits. In counterpoint to social criticism of the obesigenic nature of our "foodscape," recent work has focused on the more promising changes that can be made in what Wansink refers to as the obesigenic nature of our "kitchenscapes" and "tablescapes."
In examining the wider range of what is referred to as "mindless eating," Wansink has made contributions to three principal areas of food-related consumption: consumption norms, taste evaluation, and food selection.
Brian Wansink is a 2007 recipient of the Ig Nobel Prize
in Nutrition
. The Ig Nobel prizes are a parody of the Nobel Prize and are awarded for achievements (or sometimes veiled criticisms thereof) that "first make people laugh, and then make them think." Wansink's award was issued for investigating people's appetite for mindless eating by secretly feeding them a self-refilling bowl of soup. It has come to be known as the Bottomless Bowl Principle.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
in the fields of consumer behavior and nutritional science. He is a former Executive Director of the USDA's Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion
Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion
The Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture created on December 1, 1994, and is the focal point within the USDA where scientific research is linked with the nutritional needs of the American public....
(CNPP) (2007–2009).
Wansink is best known for his work on consumer behavior and food and for popularizing terms such as "mindless eating" and "health halos." His research has focused on how our immediate environment (supermarkets, packaging, homes, pantries, and tablescapes) influences eating habits and preferences. Wansink holds the John S. Dyson Endowed Chair in the Applied Economics and Management Department at Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
. He is the author of over 100 academic articles and books, including the best-selling book Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think
Mindless Eating
Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think is a nonfiction book by Cornell University consumer behavior professor Brian Wansink. Based upon award-winning research discoveries at the Cornell Food and Brand Lab, the book was cited by the National Action Against Obesity as being a 2006 hero in...
and Marketing Nutrition
Marketing Nutrition
Marketing Nutrition is a book that examines the intersection of consumer psychology, nutrition, and business and which is written by Cornell professor and current Executive Director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, Brian Wansink...
(2005) . He is a 2007 recipient of the humorous Ig Nobel Prize
Ig Nobel Prize
The Ig Nobel Prizes are an American parody of the Nobel Prizes and are given each year in early October for ten unusual or trivial achievements in scientific research. The stated aim of the prizes is to "first make people laugh, and then make them think"...
and was named ABC World News Person of the Week on January 4, 2008.
Having been referred to as the "Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...
of Food" and the "Wizard of Why", Wansink and his Food and Brand Lab
Food and Brand Lab
The Food and Brand Lab is a non-profit research facility at Cornell University which focuses on why people buy and eat the foods they do in the quantities they do...
have been credited with improving the deeper scientific understanding of food eating and food shopping. A fundamental finding is that our environment—such as the way a food is labeled, presented, stored, or served—biases our eating habits and taste preferences. A large part of eating less and eating better, he argues, involves making small changes to our homes and to the daily "mindless" patterns of our lives. In underscoring this, the first and last sentence of his book, Mindless Eating
Mindless Eating
Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think is a nonfiction book by Cornell University consumer behavior professor Brian Wansink. Based upon award-winning research discoveries at the Cornell Food and Brand Lab, the book was cited by the National Action Against Obesity as being a 2006 hero in...
states, "The best diet is the one you don't know you're on."
The studies from the lab have been credited with the development of the 100 calorie packs and the Small Plate Movement
Small Plate Movement
The Small Plate Movement is a combined effort by academia, government, media, and industry to help American families lose weight and feel healthier by simply reducing the size of their dinnerware...
, as well as discovering and quantifying a wide range of basic, every day insights:
- Moving from a 12-inch to a 10-inch dinner plate leads people to serve and eat 22% less.
- A person will eat an average of 92% of any food they serve themselves.
- The average person makes an excess of 250 decisions about food each day.
- Low-fat labels lead people to eat 16-23% more total calories.
- The Nutritional Gatekeeper of a home influences an estimated 72% of all of the food their family eats.
- Because of visual illusions, people (even Philly bartenders) pour 28% more into a short wide glasses than tall ones.
- 50% of the snack food bought in bulk (such as at a warehouse clubWarehouse clubA warehouse club is a retail store, usually selling a wide variety of merchandise, in which customers are required to buy large, wholesale quantities of the store's products, which makes these clubs attractive to both bargain hunters and small business owners. The clubs are able to keep prices low...
store) is eaten within six days of purchase.
Biography
Wansink was born in Sioux City, IowaSioux City, Iowa
Sioux City is a city in Plymouth and Woodbury counties in the western part of the U.S. state of Iowa. The population was 82,684 in the 2010 census, a decline from 85,013 in the 2000 census, which makes it currently the fourth largest city in the state....
of Dutch
Dutch people
The Dutch people are an ethnic group native to the Netherlands. They share a common culture and speak the Dutch language. Dutch people and their descendants are found in migrant communities worldwide, notably in Suriname, Chile, Brazil, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, and the United...
heritage, to John, a bakery production worker, and to Naomi, a legal secretary. He received his Ph.D. in Consumer behaviour
Consumer behaviour
Consumer behaviour is the study of when, why, how, and where people do or do not buy a product. It blends elements from psychology, sociology, social anthropology and economics. It attempts to understand the buyer decision making process, both individually and in groups...
in 1990 from Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
, following a B.S. from Wayne State College
Wayne State College
Wayne State College is a four-year public college in the Nebraska State College System in Wayne, Nebraska. The current enrollment is 3,571. The college opened as a State Normal School in 1910 after the State purchased the private Nebraska Normal College . The State Normal College became State...
(Nebraska) in 1982 and an M.A. from Drake University
Drake University
Drake University is a private, co-educational university located in Des Moines, Iowa, USA. The institution offers a number of undergraduate and graduate programs, as well as professional programs in law and pharmacy. Today, Drake is one of the twenty-five oldest law schools in the country....
in 1984.
He was a Marketing Professor at the Tuck School of Business
Tuck School of Business
The Amos Tuck School of Business Administration is the graduate business school of Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, in the United States...
at Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...
(1990–1994) and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
(1995–1997), and he was a Marketing, Nutritional Science, Advertising, and Agricultural Economics Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign is a large public research-intensive university in the state of Illinois, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system...
(1997–2005) before moving to Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
(2005 to date). Wansink has also been a Visiting Professor at the Vrije Universiteit
Vrije Universiteit
The Vrije Universiteit is a university in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The Dutch name is often abbreviated as VU and in English the university uses the name "VU University". The university is located on a compact urban campus in the southern part of Amsterdam in the Buitenveldert district...
(Amsterdam) and Insead
INSEAD
INSEAD is an international graduate business school and research institution. It has campuses in Europe , Asia , and the Middle East , as well as a research center in Israel...
(Fountainbleau, France), and he was a Visiting Research Scientist at the U.S. Army Soldier Systems Center
U.S. Army Soldier Systems Center
The United States Army Soldier Systems Center is a military research complex and installation in Natick, Massachusetts charged by the U.S. Department of Defense with the research and development of food, clothing, shelters, airdrop systems, and other servicemember support items for the U.S....
(Natick, MA) where he helped design ways to improve the acceptability and consumption of MREs (Meal, Ready-to-Eat) for the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
.
Wansink founded the Food and Brand Lab
Food and Brand Lab
The Food and Brand Lab is a non-profit research facility at Cornell University which focuses on why people buy and eat the foods they do in the quantities they do...
http://www.FoodPsychology.Cornell.edu/ in 1997 at the University of Illinois and the Consumer Education Foundation
Consumer Education Foundation
The Consumer Education Foundation was formed to promote healthy eating, and to help people improve what they eat, how much they eat, and how much they enjoy food. Established as a charitable fund in 1999, it was awarded the status of a tax-deductible foundation in 2005 under its registered name,...
in 1999. In 2005 he moved both to Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Since 2006, Wansink has written a monthly column on food behavior for MSNBC
MSNBC
MSNBC is a cable news channel based in the United States available in the US, Germany , South Africa, the Middle East and Canada...
entitled Chew on This. In July 2007, Wansink joined Prevention.com as one of their two nutrition columnists, writing the column Food Think with Wansink.
From 2007-2009, Wansink was granted a leave of absence from Cornell to accept a White House appointment as the fourth Executive Director of the USDA's Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion
Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion
The Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture created on December 1, 1994, and is the focal point within the USDA where scientific research is linked with the nutritional needs of the American public....
(CNPP). At CNPP, he oversaw the development of the 2010 Dietary Guidelines, the Healthy Eating Index, the Cost of Raising a Child Index, and he is charged with promoting the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, in the form of MyPyramid
MyPyramid
MyPyramid, released by the United States Department of Agriculture on April 19, 2005, is an update on the American food guide pyramid that was used until June 2, 2011, when the USDA's MyPlate replaced it. The icon stresses activity and moderation along with a proper mix of food groups in one's diet...
. He served with the Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services
Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services
The Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services is a position created within the United States Department of Agriculture in 1993, and is responsible for administrating the Department's fifteen nutrition and food security programs and for promoting the dietary guidelines.The food...
, Nancy Montanez Johner
Nancy Montanez Johner
Nancy Montanez Johner is the incumbent Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services within the United States Department of Agriculture. She was sworn in on August 21, 2006. Prior to her appointment, she had been the Director of the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services...
.
Works
A consumer psychologist, Wansink is best known for his work on food psychology and eating behavior. This work focuses on how the environment leads or even tricks people into buying and eating food in ways they are unaware. While some of these insights are directed toward responsible food manufacturers and marketers, the majority are focused specifically at parents, dieters, and at the medical and nutrition community. Using a combination of lab studies and field studies, he has used movie popcorn, refillable soup bowls, bartender glasses, candy dishes, Chinese buffets, and ice cream socials to show how various environment cues influence the food intake of unknowing consumers. Although such environmental factors appear unrelated, they generally influence intake by inhibiting consumption monitoring and by suggesting alternative consumption norms.In contrast to focusing on the macro-food environment as being the cause of the American obesity
Obesity
Obesity is a medical condition in which excess body fat has accumulated to the extent that it may have an adverse effect on health, leading to reduced life expectancy and/or increased health problems...
problem, Wansink's work focuses on the intermediate micro-environment that he contends people can control—their home and their daily habits. In counterpoint to social criticism of the obesigenic nature of our "foodscape," recent work has focused on the more promising changes that can be made in what Wansink refers to as the obesigenic nature of our "kitchenscapes" and "tablescapes."
In examining the wider range of what is referred to as "mindless eating," Wansink has made contributions to three principal areas of food-related consumption: consumption norms, taste evaluation, and food selection.
Consumption Norms
Consumption norms are influenced by the wide range of factors that can bias an unknowing person to eat or drink more than they otherwise would. For instance, the size of a serving bowl, a plate, or a package has repeatedly been shown to bias how much a person serves himself and eats by an average of 20-30%. In addition, the perceived variety (color of candies) in an assortment and the proximity of candy on one’s desk has been shown to double how much a person eats over the course of a day. Because people are estimated to make over 200 food-related decisions a day that they are unaware of making, the seemingly inconsequential impact of lighting, plate size, glass shape, music, companion, table arrangement, and dining companion can have a sizable impact on daily food intake. Over the course of year, even a 200 calorie daily change in how much one eats would translate into a 20 pound loss in weight or a 20 pound gain in weight.Taste Evaluation
The extent to which people enjoy food can be influenced by subtle environmental cues. The names of a food can create either positive or negative predispositions that can unfairly bias a person's perceived taste of a food. Wansink shows this is one reason why advertising or promoting a food as "healthy" unfairly biases people against the taste of a food. Yet using names and visual cues to guide a person's expectations can also enhance their perceived taste of a food. In one study, simply labeling a food as being a Succulent Italian Seafood Filet lead restaurant goers to much more favorably rate the taste than when it was simply labeled Seafood Filet. Similarly, the elegance of dishes and the garnishes on plates has been shown to influence a person’s taste ratings of a food.Food Selection
The food a person eats at a given time is related to sensory issues, but it is also related to how appropriate they perceive this food for that situation. People are more likely to adopt a food into a new situation (say, eating soup for breakfast) if they focus on the benefits of the food instead of on how it differs from prototypical breakfast foods. Food selection has also been linked to favorable past memories of food. This has been suggested as to why men tend to claim their favorite comfort foods are meal-related foods, such as steak, pasta, and soup, while women prefer the more convenient foods, such as ice cream, chocolate, and cookies. For men, meal-related comfort foods evoke feelings of nurturing and attention. Yet for women they evoke memories of preparation and clean-up.Ig Nobel Prize
Ig Nobel Prize
The Ig Nobel Prizes are an American parody of the Nobel Prizes and are given each year in early October for ten unusual or trivial achievements in scientific research. The stated aim of the prizes is to "first make people laugh, and then make them think"...
in Nutrition
Nutrition
Nutrition is the provision, to cells and organisms, of the materials necessary to support life. Many common health problems can be prevented or alleviated with a healthy diet....
. The Ig Nobel prizes are a parody of the Nobel Prize and are awarded for achievements (or sometimes veiled criticisms thereof) that "first make people laugh, and then make them think." Wansink's award was issued for investigating people's appetite for mindless eating by secretly feeding them a self-refilling bowl of soup. It has come to be known as the Bottomless Bowl Principle.
Books
- Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think (2007), Brian Wansink New York: Bantam-Dell. ISBN 0-553-84481-0.
- Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think (2006), Brian Wansink New York: Bantam-Dell. ISBN 0-553-80434-0.
- Marketing NutritionMarketing NutritionMarketing Nutrition is a book that examines the intersection of consumer psychology, nutrition, and business and which is written by Cornell professor and current Executive Director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, Brian Wansink...
– Soy, Functional Foods, Biotechnology, and Obesity (2005), Brian Wansink, Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0-252-02942-9. - Asking Questions: The Definitive Guide to Questionnaire Design – For Market Research, Political Polls, and Social and Health Questionnaires (2004), Norman Bradburn, Seymour Sudman, and Brian Wansink, San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. ISBN 0-7879-7088-3.
- Consumer Panels (Second Edition) (2002), Seymour Sudman and Brian Wansink, AMA: Chicago, IL. ISBN 0-87757-297-6.
Selected works
- “Environmental Factors that Increase the Food Intake and Consumption Volume of Unknowing Consumers,” (2004) Annual Review of Nutrition, Brian Wansink Volume 24, 455-479.
- "Super Bowls: Serving Bowl Size and Food Consumption," (2005) JAMA – Journal of the American Medical Association, Brian Wansink and Matthew M. Cheney, 293:14 (April 13), 1727–1728.
- “De-Marketing Obesity,” (2005) California Management Review, Brian Wansink and Mike Huckabee, 47:4 (Summer), 6-18.
- “Bottomless Bowls: Why Visual Cues of Portion Size May Influence Intake,” (2005) Obesity Research, Brian Wansink, James E. Painter, and Jill North,13:1 (January), 93-100.
- "Shape of Glass and Amount of Alcohol Poured: Comparative Study of Effect of Practice and Concentration," (2005) BMJ – British Medical Journal, Brian Wansink and Koert van Ittersum, 331:7531 (December 24).
- "Can "Low-Fat" Nutrition Labels Lead to Obesity?," (2006) Journal of Marketing Research, Brian Wansink and Pierre Chandon, 43:4 (November), 605-17.
- “Meal Size, Not Body Size, Explains Errors in Estimating the Calorie Content of Meals,” (2006) Annals of Internal Medicine, Brian Wansink and Pierre Chandon, 145:5 (September 5), 326-32.
- "Nutritional Gatekeepers and the 72% Solution,” (2006) Journal of the American Dietetic Association, Brian Wansink 106:9 (September), 1324–1327
- “Mindless Eating: The 200 Daily Food Decisions We Overlook,” (2007) Environment and Behavior, Brian Wansink and Jeffrey Sobal, 39:1 (January), 106-23.
- “Portion Size Me: Downsizing Our Consumption Norms,” (2007) Journal of the American Dietetic Association, Brian Wansink and Koert van Ittersum, 107:7 (July), 1103-1106.
- "Is Obesity Caused by Calorie Underestimation? A Psychophysical Model of Fast-Food Meal Size Estimation," (2007) Journal of Marketing Research, Pierre Chandon and Brian Wansink 44:1 (February), 84-99.
- "The Biasing Health Halos of Fast Food Restaurant Health Claims: Lower Calorie Estimates and Higher Side-Dish Consumption Intentions," (2007) Journal of Consumer Research, Pierre Chandon and Brian Wansink 34:3 (October) 301-314.
- “Internal and External Cues of Meal Cessation: The French Paradox Redux? (2007) Obesity, Brian Wansink, Collin Payne, and Pierre Chandon, 15 (December), 2920-2924. .