The Fine Line Between Shared and Manipulated Medical Decisions

See some coverage in Forbes on a debate I participated in at a recent meeting, discussing when decisions are really decisions and when nudges are really shoves.
Click here.

See some coverage in Forbes on a debate I participated in at a recent meeting, discussing when decisions are really decisions and when nudges are really shoves.
Click here.
In what academics call neoclassical economics, human beings are largely rational, self-interested decision-makers. This stereotypical human, often referred to as Homo economicus, is a creature of coldly calculated selfishness, dispassionately maximizing its best interests even if that comes at the expense of others. A study in Japan shows that Homo economicus makes up only a…
As if the Affordable Care Act wasn’t controversial enough, a lesser-known provision of the law has critics warning of regulatory zeal. Section 4205 of the ACA (in case you haven’t read that far) requires restaurants to post calorie counts for the meals they sell, a requirement critics claim will be costly to comply with, while being…
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…
American presidents have been trying to reform our health care system since at least the Nixon era, but with only limited success. Past reform efforts have failed for many reasons. For starters, the U.S. health care system is complex, with the medical industry making up almost 1/6 of our economy. But perhaps the biggest obstacle…
I joined two other, much smarter, colleagues in calling for the use of behavioral economics and decision psychology to improve the design of the websites people use to purchase health insurance in the U.S. That article came out today in the New England Journal of Medicine. Here is a taste: In October 2013, the Affordable…
A bunch of media outlets are beginning to report on a new study of mine (conducted with a couple of great colleagues) in which we found that docs choose different treatments for themselves than they recommend to their patients. Kinda scary stuff. This Marketplace report is worth listening to. Check out the ‘News and Press’ page for links to some of the other reports.