In the first chapter, the popcorn bucket story is captivating. In this true life experiment by Dr. Brian Wansink, director of the Food and Brand Lab at Cornell University, movie-goers were given free, bad, a-few-days-old-popcorn. One group was given a medium-size bucket, and the other group was given a large bucket. Both buckets had popcorn that would have been too much for one person to eat on his/her own. The movie-goers were told that, in return for the free popcorn, they had to answer a few questions about the concession stand. 

After they watched the movie, the popcorn buckets were collected, and weighed. Even though the popcorn was bad, and several of the movie-goers complained, and even wanted their money back forgetting that it was free, would you guess which group ate more popcorn? You may have guessed. It was the group with the large bucket of popcorn! Dr. Wansink, in his book Mindless Eating, concludes that when this study is repeated in different states, they reach the same conclusion. People eat more from a bigger container.

This is an illustration of the path. If you want to eat less, eat from a smaller plate. If you are going to snack, don’t eat from the packet, instead pour some of the snack in a small container and you are likely to eat less.

The rider is a metaphor for the brain or rational thinking. We need to know the facts and have a rationale for action. We collect data and justify why we are taking a course of action. 

The elephant is an metaphor for emotional perspectives. The Heath brothers caution that the elephant is very powerful and should not be ignored. For example, many of us have, at some point, worried about our weight, and the rider in us, our brain, agrees that there are good reasons to be in control of our weight. Yet sometimes we fail. We fail because of our elephant or emotional aspects. We make excuses that it is okay to eat one piece of dark chocolate because research has shown it is healthy, but then the number of pieces we consume at one sitting increases and sabotages our goal of portion control.

Switch has numerous stories illustrating the power of the rider, the elephant and the path. One of my favorite stories is about how a teacher motivated disruptive students from the back of class to arrive in time and behave. 

Chip Heath and Dan Heath are excellent storytellers and teachers. The book has short “clinics” that get one to think through situations and engages the reader. The stories about what it takes to change the system are so hard to explain. Switch does this very well, and that is why I recommend it as a “must-read” for all community health practitioners. In many ways, the metaphor to the rider-elephant-path reminded me of the endearing stories such as L. Frank Baum’s Wizard of Oz, Mary Pope Osborne’s The Brave Little Seamstress, and so many others that I have enjoyed.

On their website, the Heath brothers have posted the first chapter of the book and other valuable resources. Their previous book, Made to Stick, was reviewed in the fall 2007 issue of the CHPPD Section newsletter.

Here are selected resources to help you satisfy your rider, motivate the elephant and walk the path toward healthier communities:

Community Health Status Indicators: The Community Health Status Indicators (CHSI) provide an overview of key health indicators for local communities. The CHSI report contains over 200 measures for each of the 3,141 United States counties.

Community Health Rankings: Compares the overall health of a county, with the health of other counties in the state. Ranking also includes factors that contribute to health, such as health behaviors, quality of health care and social and economic factors. This resource is from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute.

The Association Between School-Based Physical Activity, Including Physical Education, and Academic Performance: New CDC literature review indicates that student physical activity can have positive effects on grades and test scores.