Taking one-a-day pill was like having automatic braking system – result was unhealthy behaviours
Ironic Effects of Dietary Supplementation – Illusory Invulnerability Created by Taking Dietary Supplements Licenses Health-Risk Behaviors
Psychological Science August 2011 vol. 22 no. 8 1081-1086
Wen-Bin Chiou1⇓,
Chao-Chin Yang2 and
Chin-Sheng Wan3
1Institute of Education, National Sun Yat-Sen University
2Department of Chinese Culinary Arts, National Kaohsiung University of Hospitality and Tourism
3Department of Hospitality Management, Southern Taiwan University
Wen-Bin Chiou, Institute of Education, National Sun Yat-Sen University, 70 Lien-Hai Rd., Kaohsiung, Taiwan 80424 E-mail: wbchiou@mail.nsysu.edu.tw
The use of dietary supplements and the health status of individuals have an asymmetrical relationship: The growing market for dietary supplements appears not to be associated with an improvement in public health. Building on the notion of licensing, or the tendency for positive choices to license subsequent self-indulgent choices, we argue that because dietary supplements are perceived as conferring health advantages, use of such supplements may create an illusory sense of invulnerability that disinhibits unhealthy behaviors.
In two experiments, participants who took placebo pills that they believed were dietary supplements exhibited the licensing effect across multiple forms of health-related behavior:
They expressed
less desire to engage in exercise and
more desire to engage in hedonic activities (Experiment 1),
greater preference for a buffet over an organic meal (Experiment 1), and
and walked less to benefit their health (Experiment 2)
compared with participants who were told the pills were a placebo. A mediational analysis indicated that perceived invulnerability was an underlying mechanism for these effects. Thus, a license associated with the use of dietary supplements may operate within cycles of behaviors that alternately protect and endanger health.
Publisher wants $35 for the PDF
Psychologists call this idea moral “licensing,” and Wray Hubert at the Association for Psychological Science explains the notion further:
Licensing is the notion that when we do something that we believe is good for us—like popping a vitamin—this action ironically gives us permission to engage in subsequent bad behavior—like munching potato chips—adding up to a net loss. We make these perverse tradeoffs because doing something positive bolsters our “health credentials,” which boosts our sense of invulnerability, which in turn encourages self-indulgence.