Mentor Path

The Behavioral Economics of Dollars and Bites

David Krueger MD

“I’m now aware of everything I spend – of every dollar. Previously, whatever came up, whatever was stressful, I’d go shopping. Now I can’t do that in the same unconscious way. You’ve helped me cue my radar to be aware of everything that I do that is money-related. Now I even go shopping my closet. I discovered an elegant dress that I had forgotten about, and when I wore it to a wedding over the weekend, got several comments. Some of my friends would say, “You’ve been very successful in your shopping.’ I simply smiled and said, ‘I have’.”

This astute spender and shopper is a Money Coach in training with me to become a New Money Story® Mentor. She continued, “I wanted to do the training with you to work better with my clients to help them understand their relationship with money and change their money stories. With my background in finance and business, I didn’t expect to surprise myself with this kind of self-awareness.”

Here’s a study that relates to the same process my insightful colleague experienced.

Ben Fletcher at the University of Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom devised a study to get people to break their usual habits. Each day the subjects chose a different option from poles of contrasting behaviors, e.g., lively/quiet, introvert/extrovert, reactive/proactive, and behaved according to this assignment. So an introverted person, for example, would act as an extrovert for an entire day. Additionally, twice weekly, they had to stretch to behave in a way outside their usual life pattern to eat and read something they would never have done.

What do you think was the biggest change in the group?

The remarkable finding was that after four months, the subjects lost an average of 11 pounds. Six months later, almost all had kept the weight off, and many continued to lose weight. This was not a diet, but a study focusing on change and its impact.

The rationale: requiring people to change routine behavior makes them actually think about decisions rather than habitually choosing a default mode without consideration. They became aware that every behavior—even each bite of food—was a choice. So they could reflect on whether that choice was in their best interest.

Once becoming aware of actively making choices, you can decide to make the most informed and strategic choices possible.

Mentor Path

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