Lecture 9

Question 1

Expectation assimilaton?

Answer 1

Our expectations about a stimulus (e.g. food) can bias our subsequent perception (e.g. taste).

Question 2

Compensatory techniques? (for low yield cigarettes?)

Answer 2

• Smoking more cigarettes
• Puffing more frequently
• Inhaling more deeply
• Blocking ventilation holes with mouth or finger

Question 3

Light Cigarettes - expectation v reality

Answer 3

worse than placebo, since they don’t offer harm reduction, yet they discourage quitting by manipulating consumer expectations

Question 4

3 reasons why behavioral interventions gets sabotaged?

Answer 4

1. Behavioral compensation 2. Substitution effects

3. Moral licensing

Question 5

Behavioral compensation?

Examples:

Answer 5

When people adjust their behavior in response to an intervention in order to maintain homeostasis.

1. Changes in smoking topography (e.g. puff duration, puff volume) to maintain the same nicotine levels among users of “low-yield” cigarettes.
2. Installation of energy-efficient light bulbs leads to more energy use (Jevons’ paradox).
3. Increased physical inactivity (following a bout of vigorous exercise) to maintain the same overall energy expenditure level over a day.

Question 6

Risk Homeostasis?

expalmes?

Answer 6

when people adjust their behavior in response to changes in the perceived level of risk – taking morerisks if they feel protected.

• Eating more bacon after being put on a statin drug.
• More STI among pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) users?
• Employees cutting corners when wearing protective equipment

Question 7

Peltzman effect?

example?

Answer 7

though lawmakers can regulate safety, people tend to gravitate toward their chosen level of risk.

e.g. the safer sky diving gear becomes, the more chances sky divers take, keeping the fatality rate from sky diving roughly unchanged over time.

Question 8

Interventions to take advantage of opposite of peltzman effect?

Answer 8

Shared space - minimize demarcations between vehicle traffic and pedestrians (people are more careful)

Question 9

Substitution effects?

examples?

Answer 9

An increase in quantity demanded of a substitute product when the price is raised on the original good

-Raising the price on soda (via tax) increases consumption of fruit juice.
• Stricter gun control legislation reduces firearm suicide rates, but the rates of other forms of suicide go up.
• After the DHHS/USDA issued national guidelines in 1990 that Americans should cut “% fat in diet”, people binged on carbs instead.

Question 10

Cross Elasticity?

Answer 10

• if two goods are substitutes for each other (Pepsi, Snapple), they show positivecross-elasticity (↑price of Pepsi → ↑demand for Snapple).
• if two goods are complements of each other, they will show negativecross-elasticity (↑price of Pepsi → ↓demand for Dorito chips).

Question 11

Moral Licensing?

Answer 11

Engaging in a virtuous behavior boosts our self-image and “licenses” us to indulge in subsequent “bad” behavior.

Question 12

Moral Licensing caveats?

Answer 12

Only when intiated by the consumer (not when mandatory - stores that punish customers by charging a fee for using plastic bags)

Question 13

How can stores take adtantage of moral lcensing (ie move agaist public health)

Answer 13

• Give reusuable bags away for free.
• Selling organic junk foods.
• Place organic produce near the entrance, and indulgent items near the check-out.