I’ll Have What She’s Had! Popularity Beliefs Moderate the Preference for Scarce Options in the Choice of Food Items

Information from traces of other people’s behaviour can give clues about the quality of a behaviour or option. In three experiments we test whether the number of food items allegedly already consumed by others (scarcity-due-to-popularity effect) as well as the space initially allocated to the options (default effect) influence people’s selection of edible items. Participants made choices from a set of two plant and two meat-based finger foods (Experiment 1) and between two types of unlabeled finger foods (Experiments 2 and 3). In the first two experiments, we find a preference for fuller trays (reversed scarcity effect) but no effect for the size of trays. For the choice within plant and within meat options as well as among the unlabeled options, the preference for fullness is moderated by scarcity-due-to-popularity beliefs, such that a stronger belief that scarcity relates to popularity lessens or even reverses the preference for fuller trays. When it is made explicit that the options are of equal freshness (Experiment 3), participants showed a preference for emptier trays. This preference was more pronounced the stronger their scarcity-due-to-popularity beliefs. Contrary to previous research, we show that scarcity affects the choice of food items, but only when scarcity is attributed to popularity and when there are no strong prior preferences guided by labels (e.g., plant- vs meat-based options).