University of Virginia and National Bureau of Economic Research, United States.
J Health Econ. 2012 Dec;31(6):781-96. doi: 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2012.07.004. Epub 2012 Jul 27.
The combination of economic and biological factors is likely to result in overeating in the current environment of cheap and readily available food. This propensity is shown using a "dual decision" approach where choices reflect the interaction of a "deliberative" system, operating as in standard economic models, and an "affective" system that responds rapidly to stimuli without considering long-term consequences. This framework is characterized by excess food consumption and body weight, in that individuals prefer both ex-ante and ex-post to eat and weigh less than they actually do, with weight loss attempts being common but often unsuccessful or only partially successful. As in the standard model, weight is related to prices. However, another potentially important reason for rising obesity is that food producers have incentives to engineer products to stimulate the affective system so as to encourage overeating. Data from several sources are used to investigate predictions of the dual decision model, with the evidence providing broad support for at least some irrationality in food consumption. Most importantly, there is little indication that the large secular increases in body mass index have been accompanied by corresponding growth in utility-maximizing weight. One result is that efforts to reduce weight have become more common as obesity has increased.
经济和生物因素的结合可能导致在当前廉价和易得食物的环境下过度进食。这种倾向是使用“双重决策”方法来表示的，其中选择反映了“深思熟虑”系统的相互作用，该系统的运作方式与标准经济模型一样，以及对刺激做出快速反应而不考虑长期后果的“情感”系统。该框架的特点是过度的食物消费和体重，因为个人更喜欢在事前和事后都吃，而且体重比实际体重轻，减肥尝试很常见，但往往不成功或只有部分成功。与标准模型一样，体重与价格有关。然而，肥胖率上升的另一个潜在重要原因是，食品生产商有动机设计产品来刺激情感系统，以鼓励过度进食。使用来自多个来源的数据来检验双重决策模型的预测，证据为食物消费中的至少一些非理性提供了广泛支持。最重要的是，几乎没有迹象表明，体质量指数的大幅长期增长伴随着效用最大化体重的相应增长。一个结果是，随着肥胖的增加，减肥的努力变得更加普遍。
