Behavioral Economics and Public Health

Christina A. Roberto, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Social & Behavioral Sciences and Nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She is a psychologist and epidemiologist whose research aims to identify, understand, and alter the environmental and social forces that promote unhealthy eating behaviors linked to obesity and eating disorders. In her work, she draws upon the fields of psychology, behavioral economics, marketing, and public health to answer research questions that can provide policymakers and institutions with science-based guidance. Ichiro Kawachi, MD, PhD, is the John L. Loeb and Frances Lehman Loeb Professor of Social Epidemiology and Chair of the Department of Social & Behavioral Sciences at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, where he has taught since 1992. He has previously coedited Social Epidemiology, Neighborhoods and Health, Globalization and Health, and the Oxford Handbook of Public Health Practice, all published by Oxford University Press. Kawachi lectures about social epidemiology through the Harvard University Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) platform, edX. His course, "Health and Society" (PHx 201), is a version of the class that he has taught for twenty years at Harvard. In 2013-1014, 35,000 students from all over the world were enrolled in the MOOC course.

Chapter 1: An Introduction to Behavioral Economics and Public Health ; Christina A. Roberto and Ichiro Kawachi ; Chapter 2: Intertemporal Choices for Health ; Justin S. White and William H. Dow ; Chapter 3: Maintenance of Healthy Behaviors: Forming and Changing Habits ; Dennis Runger and Wendy Wood ; Chapter 4: Emotions and Health Decision-Making: Extending the Appraisal Tendency Framework to Improve Health and Health Care ; Rebecca Ferrer, William Klein, Jennifer Lerner, Valerie Reyna, and Dacher Keltner ; Chapter 5: Social Norms, Beliefs, and Health ; Brent McFerran ; Chapter 6: Communicating for action: the importance of memorability and actionability ; Jason Riis and Rebecca K. Ratner ; Chapter 7:Nudging Individuals Toward Healthier Food Choices with the 4Ps Framework for Behavior Change ; Zoe Chance, Ravi Dhar, Michelle Hatzis, and Kim Huskey ; Chapter 8: Incentivizing Health Behaviors ; Kristina Lewis and Jason Block ; Chapter 9: Slim By Design: Moving from Can't to CAN ; Brian Wansink ; Chapter 10: Applying Behavioural Economics in a Health Policy Context: Dispatches from the front lines ; Michael Sanders and Michael Hallsworth ; Chapter 11: From Choice Architecture to Policy Infrastructure: Multi-Level Theory and the Political Economy of Health Behaviors ; Frederick J. Zimmerman