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Hide the Cookie Jar: Nudging toward healthy Eating

Loris Rubini & Deniz Ozabaci

Journal of Economic Science Association2025https://doi.org/10.1017/esa.2025.5article
AJG 1ABDC A
Weight
0.50

Abstract

College students gain a considerable amount of weight by consuming unhealthy food. Many universities adopt costly programs to alleviate this problem. We study the effect of a simple, inexpensive option: moving unhealthy items out of sight. The opportunity to investigate this intervention comes from the decision of a dining hall in the University of New Hampshire that relocated cookies from a main section in plain sight to an out-of-the way corner. The cost of cookies did not change, since the dining hall operates as an “all that you can eat” restaurant. Relative to pizza, a product that did not change location, the consumption of cookies dropped by up to 22% relative to their predicted level had the relocation not taken place. We see this as evidence that simple changes in design can nudge students towards healthy eating.

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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1017/esa.2025.5

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@article{loris2025,
  title        = {{Hide the Cookie Jar: Nudging toward healthy Eating}},
  author       = {Loris Rubini & Deniz Ozabaci},
  journal      = {Journal of Economic Science Association},
  year         = {2025},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1017/esa.2025.5},
}

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Hide the Cookie Jar: Nudging toward healthy Eating

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Evidence weight

0.50

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20
M · momentum0.50 × 0.15 = 0.07
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.