E-health, Interventions

E-health: hypes and hopes

Rik Crutzen, Maastricht University, The Netherlands

Nowadays, people use the Internet all the time and for a wide range of activities: from buying groceries to showing a funny cat-picture to a friend on the other side of the world. It is all possible. Also, the Internet is used more and more within the domain of health – often referred to as e-health. (more…)

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Financial Incentives, Incentives

Does money really change everything? Using financial incentives and disincentives to change health behaviours

Dr Jean Adams, Centre for Diet & Activity Research, University of Cambridge

Since October last year, by law, large retailers in England have been charging customers 5p (€0.06) for ‘single-use plastic carrier bags’ – those flimsy plastic bags you get from supermarkets to carry your groceries home. The money raised is donated by retailers to ‘good causes’. In the first six months of the scheme, plastic bag use by major supermarkets decreased by more than 90% (that’s 7bn fewer bags!) and more than £29m (€32m) was donated to good causes. It’s hard not to conclude that a small financial disincentive can have a big impact on our behaviour.

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Habit

Lépjünk be a szokásokba: a szokás-alakulás tudományának alkalmazása a valóságban

By Benjamin Gardner, King’s College London

Mi az a „szokás”?

Miért eszünk pattogatott kukoricát, mialatt mozizunk? Legtöbb esetben az a válasz, hogy pattogatott kukoricát enni egy szokás filmnézés közben. A pszichológusok meghatározása szerint a “szokásos viselkedés” egy automatikusan megtörténő cselekvés, egy adott helyzet (mozi) és az arra adott válasz (pattogatott kukorica evése) között megjelenő, tanult asszociáció következményeként.

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