To Push Healthier Choices, Reset the Default - WSJ

How might people be steered toward better health decisions? Make the default choice the healthier one, behavioral economists suggest in a commentary published today in JAMA.

Make water rather than soda the default combo-meal drink. Automatically schedule routine medical procedures, such as colonoscopies, rather than ask people to remember to make the appointment. For certain high-risk medical procedures, make a second opinion the default option, say the authors from Carnegie Mellon University, Aetna and the Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

The concept, which the authors term “asymmetric paternalism,” plays off individuals’ natural bias to prefer the default position. Protecting people from themselves by exploiting this tendency should improve health and preserves the freedom of choice because less healthy options remain available....