Food and Eating: Understanding and Changing Behaviours

Next friday, March 22nd, at 2:00 pm, Ana Costa will present a seminar entitled: “Food and Eating: Understanding and Changing Behaviours”.

Abstract: At the Food Behaviour Lab, we conduct research on how people judge foods and decide what to eat (and how they will eat it) that is informed by social sciences and behavioral data, with the goal of designing and implementing interventions that change their dietary habits. We are agnostic about the drivers and levers of behaviour, aiming instead to investigate the interactions between food, individual, context and practice factors that ultimately determine individuals’ decisions and actions. In this seminar, I will be presenting some of our studies and their findings, that hopefully illustrate how this approach to the study of food behaviour can contribute to promote change towards healthier and more sustainable diets at population level.

Short Bio: Dr. Ana Costa is Principal Investigator at the School of Business and Economics of the Portuguese Catholic University in Lisbon, Portugal. There, she leads the Food Behaviour Lab, where she runs several funded projects involving both national and international consortia, and academic and business partners. Her research interests are the self-regulation and social regulation of consumer behavior, patterns and evolution of food consumption habits, the adoption of new food products and alternative diets, and persuasive technology. She received her Ph.D. in Consumer Behavior and New Product Development from Wageningen University and a Ph.D. minor in Research Methods in Business Economics and Management from the University of Groningen and the Erasmus University Rotterdam.