Feeding False Beliefs Promotes Healthy Eating

By Rowan Hooper
Source: New Scientist


Psychologists in the US claim to have come up with a way of influencing people to avoid fattening foods – by giving them false beliefs. But exactly how strong this influence could be over the fullness of time, or how the technique could be usefully applied, remains unclear.

By using a technique called false feedback, volunteers were made to believe, falsely, that they had become sick on strawberry ice cream when they were children. Up to 40% of the affected test subjects then reported that they would avoid strawberry ice cream in the future. It is evidence that false beliefs can have healthy outcomes, says psychologist Elizabeth Loftus at the University of California, US, who designed the study.

This excerpt is from an article originally published by New Scientist. Please read the full article here.

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