ABSTRACT
Consumers make dozens of food decisions each and every day, involving trade-offs between taste, healthiness, convenience, price, serving sizes, variety, cultural norms, social acceptance, and many other factors. Two factors in food decisions that often receive top billing are taste and health, and the underlying self-control conflicts that emerge. One of the intuitions that consumers often utilize in making decisions in ambiguous food environments is that healthier products are more expensive. Overall, understanding how consumers navigate the complexities of food decision making day in and day out is critical to understanding long-term patterns of consumption. Food decision making is complicated, and therefore understanding the rules of thumb that guide consumers is crucial to understanding patterns of behavior. Trade-offs is a real or perceived part of food decision making for consumers, and consumers often perceive conflicts between health, taste, and price.
