Frame Healthy Foods as Filling to Reduce Unhealthy Choices among the Poor

The poor are known to seek unhealthy foods. A widespread belief is they do so because they value their future less, are present-focused, and favor immediate gratification, including the indulgence offered by unhealthy foods. Food assistance, often considered free money devoid of the pain of paying, is believed to further license indulgence. We challenge this view to posit low-income consumers are food-insecure, and when making unhealthy choices, they seek filling, not indulgent, foods. Food-assistance cards increase unhealthy choice, not by licensing indulgence, but by further reminding users of their food insecurity. Four experiments support our position—low-income consumers are more likely to choose filling-healthy foods over indulgent ones, especially when using food assistance cards, and food-insecurity underlies these choices. In a field study, we then show, among the homeless poor, merely labeling a healthy-food as filling increases its choice. In a second field demonstration, coding 5,211 purchases by low-income shoppers, we find interventions framing healthy foods as filling increase healthy purchases four-fold. We discuss importance of this new theoretical perspective for understanding true over presumed motivations of poor consumers.