Harder Than You Think: Misconceptions about Logging Food with Photos versus Text
Date
2022-07-26
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Journal of the Association for Consumer Research
Abstract
Consumers lose more weight when they log their food consumption more consistently, yet they face challenges in doing so. We investigate how the modality of food logging—whether people record what they eat by taking photos versus writing text—affects their anticipated and actual logging experience and behavior. We find that consumers are more likely to adopt and anticipate better experiences with photo-based food logging tools over text-based tools. However, in a weeklong field study, these expectations reveal themselves to be inaccurate; once participants start logging, they find taking photos (vs. writing text) to be more difficult, log less of what they eat, and are less likely to continue using the logging tool. These findings contribute to existing research on how people track goal progress, as well as persistence with and dis-adoption of products. Moreover, our findings provide insights into what might increase the use of products that encourage healthy eating.
Description
This article was originally published in Journal of the Association for Consumer Research. The version of record is available at: https://doi.org/10.1086/720444. © 2022 Association for Consumer Research. All rights reserved. This article will be embargoed until 07/26/2023.
Keywords
field study, tracking, misprediction, photos, goal persistence
Citation
Silverman, Jackie, Alixandra Barasch, Kristin Diehl, and Gal Zauberman. “Harder Than You Think: Misconceptions about Logging Food with Photos versus Text.” Journal of the Association for Consumer Research 7, no. 4 (October 1, 2022): 419–28. https://doi.org/10.1086/720444.