From an initial online survey, they discovered that
people seem to subscribe to one of two major beliefs about the primary cause of
obesity:"Some people overwhelmingly implicated poor diet, and a roughly
equal number implicated lack of exercise. Genetics, to our surprise, was a far
distant third."
Not only did people tend to
implicate diet or exercise as the leading cause of obesity, people who
implicated diet as the primary cause of obesity actually had lower BMIs than
those who implicated lack of exercise.
"What surprised me the most
was the fact that we found lay theories to have an effect on BMI over and above
other known factors, such as socio-economic status, age, education, various
medical conditions, and sleep habits," says McFerran.
The researchers hypothesized that
the link between people's beliefs and their BMI might have to do with how much
they eat.
A study with Canadian
participants revealed that participants who linked obesity to lack of exercise
ate significantly more chocolates than those who linked obesity to diet. And a
study with participants in Hong Kong showed that participants who were primed
to think about the importance of exercise ate more chocolate than those primed
to contemplate diet.
Believing diet to be major cause of obesity,
does better for you BMI, than believing exercise is the major factor… I wonder
what believing genetics was paramount would do!?!?!
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