| A. alert B. classify C. commit D. delicately E. gentle F. impose G. labels H. moderation I. relieve J. signals K. simply |
Let's say you've decided you want to eat more healthfully. However, you don't have time to carefully plan menus for meals or read food at the supermarket. Since you really yourself to a healthier lifestyle, a little help would come in handy, wouldn't it? This is where a "choice architect" can help some of the burden of doing it all yourself. Choice architects are people who organize the contexts in which customers make decisions. For example, the person who decides the layout of your local supermarket-including which shelf the peanut butter goes on, and how the oranges are piled up—is a choice architect.
Governments don't have to healthier lifestyles through laws, for example, smoking bans. Rather, if given an environment created by a choice architect-one that encourages us to choose what is best-we will do the right things. In other words, there will be designs that gently push customers toward making healthier choices, without removing freedom of choice. This idea combines freedom to choose with hints from choice architects, who aim to help people live longer, healthier, and happier lives.
The British and Swedish governments have introduced a so-called "traffic light system" to foods as healthy or unhealthy. This means that customers can see at a glance how much fat, sugar, and salt each product contains by looking at the lights on the package. A green light that the amounts of the three nutrients are healthy; yellow indicates that the customer should be; and red means that the food is high in at least one of the three nutrients and should be eaten in . The customer is given important health information, but is still free to decide what to choose.
