The Road to Healthier Habits STANFORD GRADUATE SCHOOL OF
BUSINESS — In the United States, 60 million adults are obese and
9 million children and teens ages 6 to 19 are overweight. Being
too heavy increases the risk of health conditions and diseases
such as breast and colon cancer, coronary heart disease,
diabetes, and stroke. In short, obesity is the #2 cause of
preventable death in the United States, which means that
identifying effective treatments is both a clinical challenge
and a public health priority. But what’s the best way to get
people to lose weight? Clearly fad diets are not working. New
research indicates that bolstering people’s sense of well-being
may be a start in promoting healthful weight loss, and that
monetary incentives can motivate people to slim down or adopt
healthier habits, at least in the short run. Such findings were
shared at “The Science of Getting People to Do Good” briefing,
sponsored by the Center for Social Innovation of the Stanford
Graduate School of Business on March 30. O