Risky Business: Health Risk, Relativity, and Perception
Patt Morrison of KPCC Radio in Southern California talks to me about how people make various rational and irrational decisions in their lives. CLICK HERE to listen.
Patt Morrison of KPCC Radio in Southern California talks to me about how people make various rational and irrational decisions in their lives. CLICK HERE to listen.
A recent study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine showed that that old advice – to avoid fat and cholesterol in your diet lest you become a fat person with high cholesterol – is wrong. Instead, it is carbohydrates we should be more wary of. Consider their picture, comparing people with low-carb versus low-fat…
A quick quiz before we start today’s lesson. What do we call a tree that grows from acorns? What do we call a funny story? What sound does a frog make? What is another word for a cape? What do we call the white part of an egg? On that last question, were you tempted…
In September the United States Preventive Services Taskforce, a panel of medical experts, concluded that tests to screen for ovarian cancer do more harm than good. As a result, insurers will not be required by federal law to pay for such tests. And the announcement was met with near silence. Why was this recommendation greeted…
Obesity kills. It leads to diseases like diabetes that, in turn, increase the risk of fatal cardiovascular diseases such as strokes and heart attacks. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a treatment that forestalled all this misery and mortality? Unfortunately, many treatments don’t work well, either to combat obesity or to hold off its consequences….
Behavioral economists have written a lot about sunk costs. The idea is pretty simple: once people have invested in an effort – in time or money – they stick with that effort longer than is otherwise justified. They don’t want to feel like they’ve wasted their investment, so they continue to invest even when pulling…
In collaboration with several co-authors, including Peggy Liu – a marketing PhD student here at Fuqua – I just published a paper on how behavioral economics can help us think about better ways to combat obesity. Feel free to check it out. And feel free to send along your thoughts, too. Using Behavioral Economics to…