The influence of food recommendations: Evidence from a randomized field experiment

We report results from a randomized field experiment conducted at two food festivals. Our primary aim is to assess the impact of two types of recommendations commonly observed in food settings: most popular and chef's choice. We find that the most popular is the only recommendation that significantly increased consumers' demand relative to a baseline without recommendations. Furthermore, we find that this effect only holds for subjects from outside the local region. Our results are consistent with previous studies indicating information on peers' choices is a powerful influence on consumers' decisions in the absence of prior knowledge.