Too-Effective Way to Lose Weight?
Paul Rozin, a professor of psychology at Penn, found that people are reluctant to drink from a glass that contained a plastic cockroach. What would happen if people ate from a plate with a drawing of an insect?
Piatti sporchi = dirty plates. From a 2008 food design competition in Turin. (English description here.) The plates have pictures of a fly, a hair, a beetle, and a lipstick smudge. In a mass-market version, you could have a choice of insect sizes to control the amount of repulsion.
The competition was open to anyone. Most of the 50-odd entries were from students; a few were from professionals. This entry was from Sayonara Rush Design.
Thanks to Francesca Zampollo.
May 1st, 2009 at 7:09 am
But once people get used to eating off of plates with pictures of bugs, what will happen when there’s a real bug on their plate?
May 4th, 2009 at 4:19 pm
I don’t think the aversion will re-adjust the set-point, so food will be eaten elsewhere.
May 5th, 2009 at 3:29 pm
Or once people begin to associate delicious food with bugs… gotta go, just had an insight for a new business plan.
May 7th, 2009 at 3:05 pm
[...] The way we eat isn’t a process that’s effectively manipulated by a conscious decision to eat less. The key to losing weight is reducing the amount of hunger that you have. Then you will eat less and therefore lose weight. Seth Roberts and The Shangri-La Diet has done a lot of research on actually reducing hunger through unconventional methods and also points to other research such as this. __________________ I am always open for feedback on my posts. That might focused on the argument at hand or on my writing style. If your feedback would go offtopic feel free to send me a Personal Message. My posts generally don’t contain medical or legal advice, if you have a problem seek the opinion of an expert I don’t believe in Beliefs. Nassim Nicholas Taleb [...]