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What Can Health Learn From Behavioral Economics?

Dan Ariely
“In the future we are all wonderful people. In reality we are always tempted to misbehave. Temptations are the biggest barriers to health and are in fact killing us,” says world-renowned behavioral economist Professor Dan Ariely and Chair of the Joep Lange Institute in his first Joep Lange Institute lecture held on November 9th. The lecture was hosted by the AMC’s Global Health department in Amsterdam. Ariely explains that goals and objectives don’t matter much: “Being motivated by long-term outcomes that fluctuate over time is not part of the human system. Let’s focus on the small details. Shift the focus from outcome to action.” Forging synergies between different fields of expertise is a key ambition of the Joep Lange Chair & Fellows program. This program is housed within the Global Health department of the AMC (UvA) with the support of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It brings together experts from different backgrounds and geographies to collaborate on research that will help drive change in the field of Global Health. Professor Dan Ariely is one of the first Chairs. Appointing a behavioral economist as Chair of a Global Health department has raised a few eyebrows here and there. But if there’s one field that can’t afford to ignore behavioral economics, it’s health.
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