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Brian Wansink

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Brian Wansink (born 1960, Sioux City, Iowa) is an American professor of marketing and nutritional science. He is best known for his work on food psychology and behavior, which largely focuses on how the micro and macro environment influences what and how much people eat. Director of the Cornell Food and Brand Lab, he is author of over 100 academic articles and books.

Biography

Wansink was born in Sioux City, Iowa of Dutch heritage, to John, a bakery production worker, and to Naomi, a secretary. After receiving his Ph.D. in Consumer Behavior in 1990 from Stanford University, he was a marketing professor at the Tuck School at Dartmouth College (1990-1994), the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania (1995-1997), and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (1997-2005) before moving to Cornell University. He has also been a visiting professor or scientist at the Vrije Universiteit (Amsterdam), Insead (Fountainbleau, France), and the U.S. Army Soldier Systems Center (Natick, MA). He founded the Food and Brand Lab in 1997 at the Unversity of Illinois and moved the Lab to Cornell in 2005. The Consumer Education Foundation, which Wansink founded in 1999, received non-profit status in 2005.

Works

Wansink is best known for his work on food psychology and behavior. This focuses on the environmental factors that influence the purchase and consumption of food in ways in which consumers are often unaware. Using a combination of lab studies and field studies, his research has used movie popcorn, refillable soup bowls, bartender glasses, candy dishes, Chinese buffets, and ice cream socials to show how various environment cues influence the food intake of unknowing consumers. Although such environmental factors appear unrelated, they generally influence intake by inhibiting consumption monitoring and by suggesting alternative consumption norms.

In contrast to criticizing the macro-food environment as being the cause of the American obesity problem, Wansink's work focuses on the intermediate micro-environment that he contends people can control -- their home and their daily habits.

Books (in chronological order)

  • Consumer Panels (Second Edition) (2002), AMA: Chicago, IL. (with Seymour Sudman) ISBN 0-8775-7297-6.
  • Asking Questions: The Definitive Guide to Questionnaire Design – For Market Research, Political Polls, and Social and Health Questionnaires (2004), San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. (with Norman M. Bradburn and Seymour Sudman). ISBN 0-787-97088-3.
  • Marketing Nutrition – Soy, Functional Foods, Biotechnology, and Obesity, Champaign (2005), Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0-252-02942-9.
  • Mindless Eating – Why We Eat More Than We Think (2006), New York: Bantam-Dell. ISBN 0-553-80434-0.


Selected Research Articles (in chronological order)

  • “Can Package Size Accelerate Usage Volume?” (1996) Journal of Marketing, Vol. 60:3 (July), 1–14.
  • “When are Stockpiled Products Consumed Faster? A Convenience-Salience Framework of Post-purchase Consumption Incidence and Quantity,” (2002) Journal of Marketing Research, 39:3 (August), 321–335. (with Pierre Chandon).
  • “Exploring Comfort Food Preferences Across Gender and Age,” (2003) Physiology and Behavior, 79:4–5, 739–747. (with Matthew M. Cheney and Nina Chan)
  • “Environmental Factors that Increase the Food Intake and Consumption Volume of Unknowing Consumers,” (2004) Annual Review of Nutrition, Volume 24, 455–479.
  • “The Influence of Assortment Structure on Perceived Variety and Consumption Quantities,” (2004) Journal of Consumer Research, 30:4 (March), 519–533. (with Barbara E. Kahn)
  • “Super Bowls: Serving Bowl Size and Food Consumption,” (2005) JAMA – Journal of the American Medical Association, 293:14 (April 13), 1727–1728. (with Matthew M. Cheney).
  • “De-Marketing Obesity,” (2005) California Management Review, 47:4 (Summer), 6–18. (with Mike Huckabee).
  • “Bottomless Bowls: Why Visual Cues of Portion Size May Influence Intake,” (2005) Obesity Research, 13:1 (January), 93–100. (with James E. Painter and Jill North).
  • “Shape of Glass and Amount of Alcohol Poured: Comparative Study of Effect of Practice and Concentration,” (2005) BMJ – British Medical Journal, 331:7531 (December 24) 1512–1514 (with Koert van Ittersum).
  • “Nutritional Gatekeepers and the 72% Solution,” (2006) Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 106:9 (September), 1324–1327
  • “Ice Cream Illusions: Bowl Size, Spoon Size, and Self-Served Portion Sizes,” (2006) American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 31:3 (September), 240–243. (with Koert van Ittersum and James E. Painter).
  • “Meal Size, Not Body Size, Explains Errors in Estimating the Calorie Content of Meals,” (2006) Annals of Internal Medicine, September 5, 145:5 (September 5), 326–332. (with Pierre Chandon).


• Professor Wansink’s Home Page at Cornell University (http://aem.cornell.edu/faculty_content/wansink.htm)
• Official Mindless Eating community website (http://mindlesseating.org/)
• The Cornell Food and Brand Lab (http://www.foodpsychology.cornell.edu/)

Resources

• "The Wizard of Why" (by Robin Jenkins Mather) Chicago Tribune, 3-30-05, Section 7, pp 1+

• "Seduced By Snacks? No, Not You" (by Kim Severson) New York Times, 10-11-06, pp. D1+.

• "Just Put Your Mind to It" (by Nanci Hellmich) USA Today, 10-11-06, p. 5D.

• “New Tricks for Eating Better and Less . . .” Fitness, 11-06, pp. 16-18.

• “I Can’t Believe I Ate the Whole Thing,” (by Patricia Volk), O Magazine, 11-06, pp. 229-233.

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