Healthier fruits and vegetables frequently feature on packaging for foods high in fat and sugar. These pairings can lead to calorie underestimates (Chernev (2011) The Dieter’s paradox). In a series of experiments we replicated this effect but our findings demonstrated that calorie underestimation depends upon the presence and content of a reference food.

Status: Published. Forwood, Ahern, Hollands, Fletcher, Marteau. (2013) ‘Underestimating Calorie Content When Healthy Foods Are Present: An Averaging Effect or a Reference-Dependent Anchoring Effect?’ Access full text.