So says a new study:
Psychologists at the University of California, San Diego, wanted to see
how much soda people would buy when drink choices were restricted to
reflect a ban on larger sizes.
They presented a group of 100 male and female undergraduates with
sample menus for venues such as ballparks, movie theaters and fast-food
restaurants and asked them to tick off the food and drink items they
would choose.
Some of the menus offered a traditional sampling of 16, 24 and 32 ounce drinks priced at $1.59, $1.79 and $1.99, respectively.
Others offered a choice of a 16 ounce drink for $1.59, a "bundle" of
two 12 ounce drinks for $1.79, and a bundle of two 16 ounce drinks for
$1.99. A third menu type offered only 16 ounce drinks for $1.59.
Participants bought more soda from the "bundle" menu than the
traditional menu — about 3 more ounces on average — and about 12 more
ounces than from the one-size menu.
The fictitional business owners also reaped more revenue from the bundle scenario than from either of the others.
"Even with the restriction, New York State Senator Daniel Squadron has
said that 'those who want to drink more will still be able to go ahead
and have two,'" researchers wrote, referring to comments on Mayor
Bloomberg's proposed ban on drinks over 16 ounces, which was struck down
by a judge in March. "Our study shows that when larger drink sizes are
offered as bundles, people are very likely to go ahead and do just
that."
Though the study doesn't measure how much soda individuals actually
drink in the various menu setups — only what they say they would buy —
the results take some of the fizz out of policy makers' aim to fight
obesity by slashing drink sizes, said lead study author Brent Wilson, a
Ph.D. candidate in psychology at UC San Diego.
I wonder if this kind of scenario occurred to Nanny Bloomberg?
Had the soda ban gone into effect, it could have potentially increased soda consumption and revenue for both business owners and the soda industry.
No comments:
Post a Comment