Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

Given a choice made for us or us making our own choice, we choose the default.

A recent experiment showed that people will eat fruit instead of french fries if fruit is the default choice. This experiment was not done on sophisticated, health-conscious adults but on kids. Uh, well, there must be an explanation.

Here are some possible explanations:

• we are lazy
• we trust those who set the default
• proximity overrules other things (including judgement)

Let’s skip over the first two as I don’t want to believe those about myself. Let’s agree the third explanation is most correct. So now what do I do?

Put the alternative I want people to choose right in front of them.

Boy, it is a bit embarrassing to need an expensive study to learn such a simple lesson.