The effect of images of Michelle Obama’s face on trick-or-treaters’ dietary choices: A randomized control trial

Peter M. Aronow; Dean Karlan; Lauren E. Pinson

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0189693

The effect of images of Michelle Obama’s face on trick-or-treaters’ dietary choices: A randomized control trial

Peter M. Aronow, Dean Karlan^*, Lauren E. Pinson

^*Corresponding author for this work

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Abstract

Objective To evaluate the microfoundations of a personality-inspired public health campaign’s influence on minors. Design Multi-year randomized control trial. Setting Economics professor’s front porch in New Haven, CT. Participants 1223 trick-or-treaters in New Haven over three years; on average, 8.5 years old and 53% male (among children whose gender was identifiable). Eligibility Trick-or-treaters over the age of three that approached the house. Intervention Random assignment to the Michelle Obama side of the porch or the Comparison side of the porch. Main outcome measure Selection of fruit over candy. Methods Difference-in-means estimates. Results We estimate that viewing a photograph of Michelle Obama’s face relative to control conditions caused children to be 19% more likely to choose fruit over candy. Conclusions Michelle Obama’s initiative to reduce childhood obesity has influenced children’s dietary preferences. Whether this influence extends beyond Halloween trick-or-treating in New Haven, CT on the porch of an economics professor requires further research.

Original language	English (US)
Article number	e0189693
Journal	PloS one
Volume	13
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0189693
State	Published - Jan 2018

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology(all)
Agricultural and Biological Sciences(all)
General

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@article{984cabd1a6fe4592b4f0596dcdc512b9,

title = "The effect of images of Michelle Obama{\textquoteright}s face on trick-or-treaters{\textquoteright} dietary choices: A randomized control trial",

abstract = "Objective To evaluate the microfoundations of a personality-inspired public health campaign{\textquoteright}s influence on minors. Design Multi-year randomized control trial. Setting Economics professor{\textquoteright}s front porch in New Haven, CT. Participants 1223 trick-or-treaters in New Haven over three years; on average, 8.5 years old and 53% male (among children whose gender was identifiable). Eligibility Trick-or-treaters over the age of three that approached the house. Intervention Random assignment to the Michelle Obama side of the porch or the Comparison side of the porch. Main outcome measure Selection of fruit over candy. Methods Difference-in-means estimates. Results We estimate that viewing a photograph of Michelle Obama{\textquoteright}s face relative to control conditions caused children to be 19% more likely to choose fruit over candy. Conclusions Michelle Obama{\textquoteright}s initiative to reduce childhood obesity has influenced children{\textquoteright}s dietary preferences. Whether this influence extends beyond Halloween trick-or-treating in New Haven, CT on the porch of an economics professor requires further research.",

author = "Aronow, {Peter M.} and Dean Karlan and Pinson, {Lauren E.}",

note = "Funding Information: The resources for this study (to reimburse the candy purses) were provided by a Yale University research account but not through any specific funding opportunity. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. We thank Jane Bang, Filip Babalievsky, Ellen Degnan, Maria Dieci, Louis Gilbert, Elijah Goldberg, Zachary Groff, Sakshi Kumar, Kelsey Larson, Betsy Levy Paluck, Rebecca Shaw, Hannah Yang, and Glynis Startz for assistance running the field experiments. We thank Jonathon Baron and Molly Offer-Westort for useful comments. We thank Yale University for research support.",

year = "2018",

month = jan,

doi = "10.1371/journal.pone.0189693",

language = "English (US)",

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AU - Karlan, Dean

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N1 - Funding Information: The resources for this study (to reimburse the candy purses) were provided by a Yale University research account but not through any specific funding opportunity. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. We thank Jane Bang, Filip Babalievsky, Ellen Degnan, Maria Dieci, Louis Gilbert, Elijah Goldberg, Zachary Groff, Sakshi Kumar, Kelsey Larson, Betsy Levy Paluck, Rebecca Shaw, Hannah Yang, and Glynis Startz for assistance running the field experiments. We thank Jonathon Baron and Molly Offer-Westort for useful comments. We thank Yale University for research support.

PY - 2018/1

Y1 - 2018/1

N2 - Objective To evaluate the microfoundations of a personality-inspired public health campaign’s influence on minors. Design Multi-year randomized control trial. Setting Economics professor’s front porch in New Haven, CT. Participants 1223 trick-or-treaters in New Haven over three years; on average, 8.5 years old and 53% male (among children whose gender was identifiable). Eligibility Trick-or-treaters over the age of three that approached the house. Intervention Random assignment to the Michelle Obama side of the porch or the Comparison side of the porch. Main outcome measure Selection of fruit over candy. Methods Difference-in-means estimates. Results We estimate that viewing a photograph of Michelle Obama’s face relative to control conditions caused children to be 19% more likely to choose fruit over candy. Conclusions Michelle Obama’s initiative to reduce childhood obesity has influenced children’s dietary preferences. Whether this influence extends beyond Halloween trick-or-treating in New Haven, CT on the porch of an economics professor requires further research.

AB - Objective To evaluate the microfoundations of a personality-inspired public health campaign’s influence on minors. Design Multi-year randomized control trial. Setting Economics professor’s front porch in New Haven, CT. Participants 1223 trick-or-treaters in New Haven over three years; on average, 8.5 years old and 53% male (among children whose gender was identifiable). Eligibility Trick-or-treaters over the age of three that approached the house. Intervention Random assignment to the Michelle Obama side of the porch or the Comparison side of the porch. Main outcome measure Selection of fruit over candy. Methods Difference-in-means estimates. Results We estimate that viewing a photograph of Michelle Obama’s face relative to control conditions caused children to be 19% more likely to choose fruit over candy. Conclusions Michelle Obama’s initiative to reduce childhood obesity has influenced children’s dietary preferences. Whether this influence extends beyond Halloween trick-or-treating in New Haven, CT on the porch of an economics professor requires further research.

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