A UCLA crew noticed that lots of doctors were prescribing antibiotics for things they shouldn't have been like sinus infections. They teamed up with some medical practices in the Los Angeles area to run an experiment using soft commitment to try to get doctors to find a way to be more successful and resisting that urge. Some doctors were randomly assigned to be asked to sign a letter basically pledging I will not prescribe antibiotics for these unnecessary conditions, then post those in their waiting rooms so the patients would also see them when they came in for a visit. That really substantially reduced those doctors prescriptions of antibiotics for unnecessary cases over the following months.
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?