Chances are we know what’s good for we — daily exercise, avoiding tantalizing candy and eating copiousness of fruits and vegetables. But chances are, we don’t follow this advice.
So since is it so formidable to make healthy choices? Partly, it’s since humans have a healthy disposition for rewards that come earlier (a square of chocolate cake we can eat today) rather than after (a reduced risk of heart disease), pronounced David Laibson, a highbrow of economics during Harvard University.
Because of this bias, simply giving people information — such as how many calories are in their latte or hamburger — doesn’t typically change their behavior, Laibson said. This explains since efforts to post calorie information in restaurants and quick food chainsdon’t customarily change how many calories people consume, studies show.
But there might be ways to assistance people follow by with their good intentions, Laibson said.
In new studies, Laibson and colleagues have found that elementary things like seeking people to write down a devise for when they will do something can urge their confluence to healthy behaviors.
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For instance, in one study, Laibson and colleagues gave people a prospectus revelation them when and where to get a flu shot. If that prospectus also asked them to write down a date and time they designed to go (by providing a box to write this information), a commission of people who indeed went to get a influenza shot increasing from 33 percent to 37 percent.
While this is a comparatively tiny increase, it took only “a few drops of ink†to a leaflet, he said, and destiny studies should try either other forms of interventions have an even larger impact on behavior.
Laibson pronounced his studies concentration on how to get consumers, rather than product makers, to change, since those who make dishes and beverages are manageable to their customers.
Laibson discussed his work this week during a annual assembly of a American Association for a Advancement of Science in Boston.
Work from other researchers has found that comatose factors, such as the size of plates used for eating, can minister to how most we eat, and regulating smaller plates reduces consumption.
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