Exploring Price-Independent Mechanisms in the Obesity Epidemic

Obesity is a rapidly growing epidemic in the United States and a major public health challenge worldwide. To counteract this epidemic effectively, better understanding of its mechanisms are needed - we must understand not just what factors play a role, but how and why they matter. Most studies to date have focused on prices, technology, and the general availability of food. Less attention has been paid to the roles of social influence and the physiology of energy balance - despite growing evidence that both play important roles. In this paper, we present some initial findings from our analysis of two non-price mechanisms for obesity: the physiology of dieting, and socially influenced weight changes