Monday, February 17, 2014

Social Pressure and Salad

In Psychology class last year, we learned all about how people's behavior is affected by their environment. There have been times that I've been skeptical about the extent of this happening, but I noticed today how just being at Emory has changed my habits.

It was about 5:30 PM when I realized that I had eaten a salad for lunch and gone for a run in the park. It seems like a normal thing now, but just a few months ago, I had no qualms about eating hamburgers and drinking soda for just about every meal, with my only exercise being walking to class.

As far as I can tell, I'm about as physically healthy as I was last semester, and I get the sense that my slow adoption of elements of the salad & run lifestyle is happening just because it's what people do here. I've by no means completely changed my habits, but any psychological phenomenon that has me voluntarily visiting a salad bar is probably worth noting.

2 comments:

  1. Running for recreation? Choosing salads over meat? You shock me! Who are you and what have you done with the Micah I once knew?

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