How to Eat More Dessert: A Lesson in Behavioral Economics

The main course is done. You, your partner, and the couple you’re with, are all in good spirits, savoring the memories of good food eaten just moments ago.

Then, without prompting or permission, your server drops a dessert menu before you. 

You barely let your eyes touch the words on paper; in fact, you’re awkwardly doing everything possible to appear uninterested in its contents. As the tension mounts, you purposely pick it up to move it aside, as further evidence of disregard … but also so that you can grab a glance.

It’s then that the word “chocolate” lands in your brain. Which starts to melt as the conversation around the table turns to “you don’t want desert, do you?”

Actually, you do. But for reasons related to cost, calories, or perhaps some deep-seated belief that dessert is for children, you also say no.

Then the server (who is seasoned and shrewd) makes an impassioned pitch. (If you love desert and you’re lucky) someone at the table then has the fortitude to say, “well, it can’t hurt to look.”

At that point, everyone picks up the menu and finally gives in to what they’ve wanted all along: dessert.

This change in choice, prompted by a “nudge,” is a classic example of behavioral economics. 

For many of us, saying “no” to desert is a default option. So, as we look to how others are behaving to guide our own actions (called the social proof heuristic), we follow suit.

But, having been nudged, someone among us “grants us permission” to consider, the table is turned (no pun intended). The default is altered.

So, if you love a little something sweet, next time you’re out with a group try this: when the dessert menus are dropped on the table, pick it up immediately and say out loud, “we can’t end a meal like this without desert, right?”

[Image of Nutella Panna Cotta from Terra Sole Ristorante, Ridgefield, CT. Yum.]