Economic preferences and obesity among a low-income African American community

Angela C.M. de Oliveira; Tammy C.M. Leonard; Kerem Shuval; Celette Sugg Skinner; Catherine Eckel; James C. Murdoch

doi:10.1016/j.jebo.2015.11.002

Economic preferences and obesity among a low-income African American community

Angela C.M. de Oliveira
, Tammy C.M. Leonard
, Kerem Shuval
, Celette Sugg Skinner
, Catherine Eckel
, James C. Murdoch

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Obesity has reached epidemic proportions in the US, with a significantly higher fraction of African Americans who are obese than whites. Yet there is little understanding of why some individuals become obese while others do not. We conduct a lab-in-field experiment in a low-income African American community to investigate whether risk and time preferences play a role in the tendency to become obese. We examine the relationship between incentivized measures of risk and time preferences and weight status (BMI), and find that individuals who are more tolerant of risk are more likely to have a higher BMI. This result is driven by the most risk tolerant individuals. Patience is not independently statistically related to BMI in this sample, but those who are more risk averse and patient are less likely to be obese.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	196-208
Number of pages	13
Journal	Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization
Volume	131
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2015.11.002
State	Published - 1 Nov 2016
Externally published	Yes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Elsevier B.V.

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being

Keywords

Field experiment
Obesity
Risk preference
Time preference

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Economics and Econometrics
Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management

Access to Document

10.1016/j.jebo.2015.11.002

Cite this

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title = "Economic preferences and obesity among a low-income African American community",

abstract = "Obesity has reached epidemic proportions in the US, with a significantly higher fraction of African Americans who are obese than whites. Yet there is little understanding of why some individuals become obese while others do not. We conduct a lab-in-field experiment in a low-income African American community to investigate whether risk and time preferences play a role in the tendency to become obese. We examine the relationship between incentivized measures of risk and time preferences and weight status (BMI), and find that individuals who are more tolerant of risk are more likely to have a higher BMI. This result is driven by the most risk tolerant individuals. Patience is not independently statistically related to BMI in this sample, but those who are more risk averse and patient are less likely to be obese.",

keywords = "Field experiment, Obesity, Risk preference, Time preference",

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doi = "10.1016/j.jebo.2015.11.002",

language = "English",

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TY - JOUR

T1 - Economic preferences and obesity among a low-income African American community

AU - de Oliveira, Angela C.M.

AU - Leonard, Tammy C.M.

AU - Shuval, Kerem

AU - Skinner, Celette Sugg

AU - Eckel, Catherine

AU - Murdoch, James C.

PY - 2016/11/1

Y1 - 2016/11/1

N2 - Obesity has reached epidemic proportions in the US, with a significantly higher fraction of African Americans who are obese than whites. Yet there is little understanding of why some individuals become obese while others do not. We conduct a lab-in-field experiment in a low-income African American community to investigate whether risk and time preferences play a role in the tendency to become obese. We examine the relationship between incentivized measures of risk and time preferences and weight status (BMI), and find that individuals who are more tolerant of risk are more likely to have a higher BMI. This result is driven by the most risk tolerant individuals. Patience is not independently statistically related to BMI in this sample, but those who are more risk averse and patient are less likely to be obese.

AB - Obesity has reached epidemic proportions in the US, with a significantly higher fraction of African Americans who are obese than whites. Yet there is little understanding of why some individuals become obese while others do not. We conduct a lab-in-field experiment in a low-income African American community to investigate whether risk and time preferences play a role in the tendency to become obese. We examine the relationship between incentivized measures of risk and time preferences and weight status (BMI), and find that individuals who are more tolerant of risk are more likely to have a higher BMI. This result is driven by the most risk tolerant individuals. Patience is not independently statistically related to BMI in this sample, but those who are more risk averse and patient are less likely to be obese.

KW - Field experiment

KW - Obesity

KW - Risk preference

KW - Time preference

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DO - 10.1016/j.jebo.2015.11.002

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:84949871139

SN - 0167-2681

VL - 131

SP - 196

EP - 208

JO - Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization

JF - Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization

ER -

Economic preferences and obesity among a low-income African American community

Abstract

Bibliographical note

UN SDGs

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Access to Document

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