98. Behavior Change at WW and Beyond, an Interview with Dr. Julie O’Brien

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Today, I am very excited to introduce you to Dr. Julie O’Brien, a behavioral scientist applying concepts from behavioral economics in business. In today’s episode, we talk about research Julie has done herself or is particularly interested in, both as part of her time as a principal behavioral scientist at the Center for Advanced Hindsight at Duke University (which, for those of you who don’t know, is lead by Dan Ariely, one of the best known behavioral economists in the world. He wrote</span> <a href= "http://danariely.com/books/predictably-irrational/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Predictably Irrational</span></a> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">and several other books I reference often on the show.  Julie is currently the Director of Behavior Change at</span> <a href="https://www.weightwatchers.com/us/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">WW</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">I so enjoyed talking to Julie about all the amazing work she has been doing on bringing behavioral science out of the lab and testing things within real businesses – and I love all the practical applications of behavioral economics being applied to health and fitness. As many of you know, one of my top 3 goals is centered around health and I have been training up for a half marathon (admittedly, with some gaps recently…but back on the train!) as well as using my Peloton as I mentioned in the show.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Julie talks a bit today about some research using the peak-end rule in health and fitness as well as so many other concepts and fascinating applications for behavioral economics. We touch on a lot of concepts in the conversations, and there are links to nearly all of them, including the episodes on memory biases, the peak-end rule, habits, goals, counterfactual thinking, the overwhelmed brain, optimism bias, fundamental attribution error, how to set up your own experiments, and more. We behavioral economists