Psychology is always going to appeal to us and I think the challenge of course is is uh well I was gonna say something else actually you know there's something to be said for maybe there's a placebo effect here right so even though it's a bad study if you think it's true maybe it'll help you change your life. improve even further or it could go the other way. Once you recognize and sort of think about things differently behave different that can be a really useful tool yeah i'm really happy with my townhouse 'cause walking up and down the stairs are passive exercise like running from roof deck to get catch-up on our laundry.
Behavioral scientist Katy Milkman of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania talks about her book How to Change with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. What can we learn from research in psychology and behavioral economics about breaking the habits we want to change? Is that research reliable? And should Russ Roberts accept being overweight or keep working at finding the thinner man trying to get out?