The influence of cognitive bias on the use of menu nutritional information among consumers in Mahikeng city, South Africa

Abstract

Previous studies have found that the provision of nutritional information on restaurant menus has had a disparate effect on consumers in various countries. Numerous explanations have been offered to rationalise consumers' failure to incorporate new information during decision-making in developed countries and not much information is availed in the developing world. This study investigates the effect of nutritional information provision on consumers in South Africa, a country that is experiencing an increase in the consumption of food-away-from-home and lifestyle-related diseases similar to some developed countries. The study utilised the Endogenous Treatment Poisson regression model to compare the changes in intended behaviour before and after the provision of nutritional information on typical fast-food meals. The empirical results show that the provision of nutritional information had a significant influence on intended consumption behaviour. However, consumers’ cognitive biases with regard to the level of importance of the different nutrient-content information resulted in the over-reliance on calorie information and negligence of sodium and fat content information. These results imply that efforts to encourage healthier food choices by increasing information can be curtailed by cognitive biases. Hence, the study recommends that efforts be made to improve consumer education on how to integrate various nutritional-content information in decision-making. Furthermore, additional research on the best ways to relay nutritional information is recommended.