Posts Tagged ‘nudge theory’

Nudging the behavior of consumers seems like an appealing strategy for overcoming the rise in obesity and the harm it is causing to population health. Apply a little behavioral psychology and voilà! People make healthier choices. The appeal is so strong that the UK government is counting on supermarket nudges to overcome obesity and save […]

“There must be a pony somewhere.” So goes the punchline of a joke about a manure pile that has circulated in various forms for more than a century.  A new report in BMC Nutrition brings this joke to mind. From a great muck of uncontrolled data about dietary nudges in a single hospital convenience store, […]

A fascinating debate is unfolding in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). It’s mostly about publication bias, but the bottom line question is not so esoteric. Can a nudge make meaningful behavior change happen in a wide variety of situations? Late last year, Stephanie Mertens and colleagues published a meta-analysis of nudging […]

Bless their hearts. Really. We know they mean well. Three health policy gurus have a new viewpoint in JAMA Pediatrics on childhood obesity treatment. They explain “how children and families make daily obesity-related decisions.” Because they’re “not rational.” So you have to “keep it simple” for them. Thus, behavioral economics can provide a wonderful little […]

It’s an easy trap. Prevention is a cherished goal for childhood obesity. Behavioral economics has such a strong cachet that it just earned Richard Thaler a Nobel Prize. So when elegant research that says little nudges – like a sticker on a piece of fruit – can lead children to make better food choices, we want to […]