Jessica Brown

Miami University Employee Benefits and Wellness Intern

23 April 2020

TedTalk: Why it’s so Hard to Make Healthy Decisions : Reflection

If I learned one thing throughout my studies as a health major and an intern it is that

people will only truly change their behavior when they are ready to. They will not if they are told

to, forced to, or suggested to, only if and when they fully have sufficient self-efficacy within

themselves and comfort in doing so. I always wondered how we better guide the individual at

risk to developing that self-efficacy faster instead of waiting months for them to get there. The

talk given by David Asch has opened my eyes to how this can happen and also bettered my

understanding of why people find it difficult to make better decisions in general.

Even when it is a life or death situation, people find it incredibly difficult to stick with a

behavior change for their health even though we are fully aware that chaning one poor behavior

can improve our lives substantially. This is not just people having a knowledge deficit, while

people more often than not have what Arch describes as a behavior deficit. This can be

understood by behavior economics, which describes how humans are very irrational and make

decisions based on emotion and what will be better for us right now rather than for the long term.

It encompasses the “you only live once” way of life in an ironic way. I empathize with people

who follow this way because you do only live once, so our urge is to make it enjoyable right now

and live life on the edge. However, I have some hesitation about this also because if you want an

enjoyable, unapologetic life, why risk shortening it by continuously making poor decisions?

There was a quote Asch mentioned from Steven Wright which says “Hard work pays off

in the future, but laziness pays off right now”. One of the major arguments we have within

ourselves is exactly that; we as a population prefer to push things on to the next day because we
love instant gratification. In other words, you might dislike how your body feels after a lazy day

of snacking and movies and realize that going for a walk is better for your mental and physical

health, but laying on the ground staring at the ceiling is all you want to do right now so that’s

what we are going to do. This can be displaced into plenty more examples such as the lottery, a

company outrageously increasing sales price of products, not going to the doctor, saying “the

marathon training can start tomorrow” everyday, skipping class or a meeting or no good reason,

or saying “I will make dinner at home instead of getting takeout” everyday.

What was interesting, though, was when Asch mentioned how we only improve if we are

either held accountable for our actions or are being watched. This reminds me of the imaginary

audience we have as children and adolescents; when we feel like we are being watched all the

time we are tempted to be on our best behavior to fulfill expectations. In an experiment in a

Florida hospital, they put a pair of fake eyes over the sinks to help increase rates of handwashing.

Afterwards, the hospital’s handwashing rates more than doubled just because they felt watched.

Also, we are constantly mimicking what others do. This helps behavior change by watching

people we envy or trust do something good and then doing the same. As children, we saw our

parents look left and right before crossing the street and thus we now do the same. In healthcare,

Asch used the example of how when doctors use antibiotics correctly, the residents also will.

Overall, it has been shown how modeling/mimicking along with holding an imaginary

audience can successfully help influence an individual to healthfully change their behavior. It

can be by surrounding them with people with positive attitudes for health, having a strong

support system, and constant reminders that the future is bright if they take the leap.