What initially drew you to behavioral economics research?

In a way you could say my interest in this area stems from my childhood. Going on family ski trips, we would typically buy a day pass for a set price, and you could ski however long you wanted. It’s a sunk cost. But my mother would “make us” ski until we got the average price of a run down to two dollars. For my mom, it was so motivating to make good on that sunk cost. People’s desire and need to think about things in ways that an economist would not is fascinating to me.

Regarding your research on nudging consumers away from sugary drinks, what are some findings that you’ve found most fascinating?

In a recent field study with Grant Donnelly, Laura Zatz and Dan Svirsky, we found that graphic warning labels decrease purchasing of sugary drinks. We were encouraged by this result, but also skeptical as to whether consumers would actually accept graphic warning labels. So we ran a follow-up, nationally-representative survey, asking people whether they would approve of having these labels on their drinks. The twist was that for half of the people, we told them that the graphic warning labels were effective in reducing purchasing of sugary drinks. It was only when we told people that the labels were effective that they became more accepting of them. The way you provide information can really increase its capacity to change behavior for the better. 

How would you encourage restaurants to implement the results of your research on bundling sugary drinks?  

I don't think that encouraging restaurants to serve bundles would be my first suggestion to firms. I think what could be fruitful - in the sense that it could curb consumption of sugary drinks without necessarily adversely impacting the bottom line - is to encourage firms that offer free refills to introduce a little bit of friction when consumers obtain the refill. As we saw in our experiments, even requiring people to walk a mere 10 steps to obtain a refill (as opposed to having it served to them), can curb consumption. Another way of introducing friction might be to add a little delay, for example, by making a healthy refill available immediately and unhealthy refills after a short (but not inconvenient) amount of time.