Eliciting Meal Preferences from Households: A Recipe to Improve Estimate Accuracy

Vikki O'Neill, Queen's University Belfast
Marco Boeri, Queen's University Belfast
Cate McNamee, Queen's University Belfast
Amanda Stathopoulos, Northwestern University

This paper examines the congruence between meal preferences reported by couples. We aim to elicit the most effective way to retrieve preference estimates from households about difference attributes which make up their evening meals. In this paper, we make use of an empirical dataset, collected in Northern Ireland. This paper investigates the strength of similarity between members of couples, with findings suggesting that meal preference estimates retrieved from couples, even when relating to the shared behavioural experience of joint meal consumption, have a varying level of convergence. The findings of this study hold several implications for policy making and survey researchers. We found that while individuals cannot perfectly provide a representative response for their partner, this accuracy can be improved when the questioned are framed as trade-off based choices of evening meals.