tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/consumer-choice-3060/articlesConsumer choice – The Conversation2022-11-11T03:58:13Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1942482022-11-11T03:58:13Z2022-11-11T03:58:13ZHow to switch health insurers if you’re worried about cybersecurity, costs or claims<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494377/original/file-20221109-15-k2scpe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=10%2C0%2C6699%2C4476&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/women-with-laptops-sitting-on-the-floor-4132400/">Ketut Subiyanto/Pexels</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.apra.gov.au/sites/default/files/2022-08/Quarterly%20Private%20Health%20Insurance%20Statistics%20June%202022.pdf">More than half</a> of Australians hold private health insurance. About one quarter, or almost four million people, are members of Medibank, Australia’s <a href="https://www.finder.com.au/health-insurance-statistics">largest health insurer</a> and the company at the centre of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/medibank-hackers-are-now-releasing-stolen-data-on-the-dark-web-if-youre-affected-heres-what-you-need-to-know-194340">current cybersecurity breach</a>.</p>
<p>Medibank has promised <a href="https://www.medibank.com.au/livebetter/newsroom/post/medibank-cybercrime-update11Nov">to support</a> affected customers. However, such breaches may trigger some customers to think about switching companies. People might also want to switch companies for other reasons, including wanting to get a better deal.</p>
<p>Here are some tips to get started.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/medibank-hackers-are-now-releasing-stolen-data-on-the-dark-web-if-youre-affected-heres-what-you-need-to-know-194340">Medibank hackers are now releasing stolen data on the dark web. If you're affected, here's what you need to know</a>
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<h2>Why switch?</h2>
<p>Ahead of this latest cybersecurity breach, the <a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/system/files/981_Private%20Health%20Report_2013-14_web%20FA.pdf">most common reason</a> for wanting to switch private health insurers was to find cheaper cover.</p>
<p>This was most likely driven by annual premium increases, which until recently, have been running above inflation.</p>
<p>Other reasons for switching include dissatisfaction with claim amounts, looking for additional policy benefits or trying to avoid exclusions (services not covered). Existing cover may also no longer suit someone’s <a href="https://www.iselect.com.au/health-insurance/switch-health-insurance/">health needs and lifestyle</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-why-do-australians-have-private-health-insurance-38788">Explainer: why do Australians have private health insurance?</a>
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<p>The Commonwealth Ombudsman <a href="https://www.ombudsman.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/29423/The-right-to-change_DL_Brochure_2019_digital-A1776084.pdf">offers a guide</a> with common types of situations encountered when switching health insurers, and what to expect.</p>
<p>Switching can lead to better matches between what a consumer needs from their health insurance and policy inclusions. People may also get better value for money.</p>
<p>There’s the added bonus of <a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/system/files/Private%20Health%20Report%202012-13.pdf">promoting competition</a> between companies, prompting insurers to design better-value insurance products.</p>
<h2>How do I compare?</h2>
<p>Switching health insurers may feel daunting. However, several websites such as <a href="https://www.iselect.com.au/health-insurance/?utm_sitelink=comparehealthinsurancesitelink&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=gl_bau-generic-brand-exact_dr&utm_term=iselect&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIivCnpICj-wIVgzUrCh3zcAUdEAAYASABEgJPAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds">iSelect</a>, <a href="https://www.comparethemarket.com.au/health-insurance/">comparethemarket</a> and <a href="https://www.finder.com.au/health-insurance">finder</a> provide product and cost comparisons. </p>
<p>These sites compare less than one-third of all insurers, restricting your chance for getting a better deal.</p>
<p>A less-known option is using the government website <a href="https://www.privatehealth.gov.au/dynamic/search/start">privatehealth.gov.au</a>. This contains details on every policy available in Australia.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494788/original/file-20221111-21-abak3p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Male nurse wearing mask taking blood pressure of female patient wearing mask" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494788/original/file-20221111-21-abak3p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494788/original/file-20221111-21-abak3p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494788/original/file-20221111-21-abak3p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494788/original/file-20221111-21-abak3p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494788/original/file-20221111-21-abak3p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494788/original/file-20221111-21-abak3p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494788/original/file-20221111-21-abak3p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">If you’re a nurse or belong to certain other professions, you may be eligible to join certain insurers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/male-nurse-measures-blood-pressure-senior-1817431535">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>You and your family may be eligible to join a <a href="https://www.privatehealth.gov.au/dynamic/insurer/restricted">restricted insurer</a> based on your industry or profession. These may offer <a href="https://www.finder.com.au/restricted-funds">lower premiums</a> and policies with greater benefits, as profits are returned to members. Terms and conditions, including waiting periods, may be more flexible with restricted funds.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.health.gov.au/sites/default/files/private-health-insurance-reforms-gold-silver-bronze-basic-product-tiers-campaign-fact-sheet_1.pdf">Government reforms</a> have introduced four product tiers (gold, silver, bronze or basic). These are based on standard clinical categories specifying what is and is not covered. All insurers are now required to classify their products into these tiers, which makes comparing across insurers easier.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/private-health-insurance-and-the-illusion-of-choice-10985">Private health insurance and the illusion of choice</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<h2>What else do I need to know?</h2>
<p><strong>Waiting periods, discounts and fees</strong></p>
<p>When you switch insurers, your old health fund issues a clearance certificate to your new fund, with the amounts you’ve already claimed in the year carrying across to your new policy. </p>
<p>If switching to a similar level of cover, any <a href="https://www.ombudsman.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/29423/The-right-to-change_DL_Brochure_2019_digital-A1776084.pdf">waiting periods</a> you’ve already served also carry over, provided payments with your old insurer are up to date. </p>
<p>However, you may have to serve waiting periods for any new benefits and inclusions applying under your new policy, a point to clarify with your new insurer.</p>
<p>There are no exit fees for switching and some funds offer discounts to new members, subject to a <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/F2021C00248">12% per annum cap</a>.</p>
<p>Changing insurers should not affect your <a href="https://www.privatehealth.gov.au/health_insurance/surcharges_incentives/lifetime_health_cover.htm">Lifetime Health Cover</a> status – the government incentive to encourage people to buy and keep hospital cover to avoid an age-based loading on their premiums after the age of 30. This is provided you continuously <a href="https://www.ombudsman.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/29423/The-right-to-change_DL_Brochure_2019_digital-A1776084.pdf">maintain a hospital policy</a>. </p>
<p>Insurers cannot refuse your cover or charge you more based on pre-existing health conditions. They charge customers the same price for the same policy, regardless of whether they are switchers. Although, people aged 18-29 could receive a discount of up to 10% of their premiums.</p>
<p><strong>Excesses and exclusions</strong></p>
<p>Insurers are allowed to <a href="https://www.health.gov.au/sites/default/files/private-health-insurance-reforms-increasing-voluntary-maximum-excess-levels.pdf">increase voluntary excess levels</a> (the sum you pay out of your own pocket before health insurance coverage kicks in) in return for cheaper premiums.</p>
<p>People can also choose to exclude certain medical conditions from their health cover to save money.</p>
<p>However, you should assess whether these options suit you before switching to such policies.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/greedy-doctors-make-private-health-insurance-more-painful-heres-a-way-to-end-bill-shock-127227">Greedy doctors make private health insurance more painful – here's a way to end bill shock</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>You’re not the only one finding this hard</h2>
<p>Despite the potential benefits of switching insurers, only <a href="https://www.apra.gov.au/quarterly-private-health-insurance-statistics">around 1.5%</a> of all insured people switch insurers each quarter. </p>
<p>An earlier Australian Competition and Consumer Commission <a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/system/files/981_Private%20Health%20Report_2013-14_web%20FA.pdf">report</a> found that while 48% of consumers surveyed thought about changing insurers, only 14% actually switched.</p>
<p>This likely reflects the complexity of health insurance policies, and the perceived difficulty of making a switch, leading to a tendency for people to “set and forget”.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494790/original/file-20221111-12-8uq8m1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Woman in business suit at laptop reading sheet of paper" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494790/original/file-20221111-12-8uq8m1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494790/original/file-20221111-12-8uq8m1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494790/original/file-20221111-12-8uq8m1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494790/original/file-20221111-12-8uq8m1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494790/original/file-20221111-12-8uq8m1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494790/original/file-20221111-12-8uq8m1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494790/original/file-20221111-12-8uq8m1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">It’s easy to be confused or think the process of switching is too hard.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/woman-in-blue-blazer-holding-white-paper-3727468/">Anna Shvets/Pexels</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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</figure>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/inducing-choice-paralysis-how-retailers-bury-customers-in-an-avalanche-of-options-116078">Inducing choice paralysis: how retailers bury customers in an avalanche of options</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>How could switching be easier?</h2>
<p>Scheduled annual price increases each April may make some people reassess their insurance needs.</p>
<p>The government could create more “triggers” for switching, encouraging consumers to re-assess their situation. Private health insurance advertising often increases around this time.</p>
<p>The government could also provide information to help people compare how much they are paying relative to their peers. If people discover they’re paying more than others with similar cover, that might be a good incentive to switch. People may also think about switching if they discover their chosen level of cover doesn’t align with their peers. </p>
<p>However, some consumers may never be “<a href="https://theconversation.com/confusopoly-why-companies-are-motivated-to-deliberately-confuse-39563">nudged</a>” enough to switch. A <a href="https://insightplus.mja.com.au/2021/20/why-do-australians-buy-private-hospital-insurance/">large proportion of people</a> who purchase hospital cover buy private health insurance to avoid paying the <a href="https://www.ato.gov.au/individuals/medicare-and-private-health-insurance/medicare-levy-surcharge/">Medicare levy surcharge</a>. These types of consumers may be less likely to evaluate their health cover as their health-care needs change.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/confusopoly-why-companies-are-motivated-to-deliberately-confuse-39563">Confusopoly: Why companies are motivated to deliberately confuse</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194248/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Henry Cutler receives funding from the Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anam Bilgrami does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Caught up in the latest Medibank cybersecurity breach? Not happy with your premiums? Here’s what you need to know about switching health insurer.Anam Bilgrami, Research Fellow, Macquarie University Centre for the Health Economy, Macquarie UniversityHenry Cutler, Professor and Director, Macquarie University Centre for the Health Economy, Macquarie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1750602022-02-07T01:25:51Z2022-02-07T01:25:51ZDissatisfied plastic surgery clients show the downsides of online research<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/444451/original/file-20220203-19-1l2ss1y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C321%2C6720%2C3430&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A woman walks into a plastic surgeon’s office with an image she has found online. She wants her body to look like the same, and thinks she knows how to get it. She tells the consulting surgeon exactly what she wants: round, 350cc implants, with full projection. She believes this will get her to a full D-cup shape. </p>
<p>But after the operation, once the physical pain subsides and the scars heal, she’s dissatisfied with the decidedly unnatural-looking result. It’s nothing like the image she hoped to emulate. Because that body was not hers. </p>
<p>This woman wasn’t stupid. In spending many hours online pondering her options and making decisions she was doing exactly what expert services from plastic surgeons to financial advisers encourage clients to do. </p>
<p>Yet, as our research shows, this trend has also shifted responsibility and risks onto customers. </p>
<p>Charged with “doing their own research”, drawing on anecdotal information online to inform their decision making, consumers can become overconfident about their level of understanding. The result is <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4728899/">an increasing number</a> of bad outcomes.</p>
<h2>How we did our research</h2>
<p>To understand more about the paradox of “informed” customers, we conducted a <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/10946705211047983">qualitative study</a> of women seeking breast augmentation surgery.</p>
<p>Our research involved a deep immersion into plastic surgery forums over two years. This included an analysis of YouTubers who documented their breast augmentation in online videos, and participation in a private Instagram group designed for women seeking breast augmentation surgery. From this Instagram group, we then formally interviewed 20 women aged between 18 and 34 who had breast augmentation surgery. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Many women only see their cosmetic surgeon once before their surgery." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/444466/original/file-20220204-25-i773jv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/444466/original/file-20220204-25-i773jv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444466/original/file-20220204-25-i773jv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444466/original/file-20220204-25-i773jv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444466/original/file-20220204-25-i773jv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444466/original/file-20220204-25-i773jv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444466/original/file-20220204-25-i773jv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Many women only see their cosmetic surgeon once before their surgery.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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</figure>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-five-most-surprising-cosmetic-surgery-trends-around-the-globe-59408">The five most surprising cosmetic surgery trends around the globe</a>
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<h2>Turning to the internet</h2>
<p>The results of our research suggest many women turn to the internet because consulting a plastic surgeon is expensive. An appointment costs, on average, about US$500 (A$700), with the cost of breast augmentation in the US generally ranging from US$4,000 to US$15,000 (A$ 5,600 to $A21,000). </p>
<p>Many women only see their surgeon once, for 30 to 40 minutes, before their surgery. In this consultation everything must be decided – from aesthetic decisions to discussing any medical conditions that may complicate the surgery. </p>
<p>For this reason, customers often spend weeks and months online to prepare and educate themselves before they meet their surgeon. They learn about terminology and techniques, find pictures they like, and talk to others who have gone through the procedure. </p>
<p>They even conduct DIY experiments, such as the “rice-test”, which involves filling two bags with rice and placing them inside their bra as a way of understanding breast implant sizes. </p>
<p>Many women go to these efforts to build some form of expertise for their doctor consultations, to communicate what they want to a professional and get their money’s worth. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441233/original/file-20220118-13-1mdt3qd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441233/original/file-20220118-13-1mdt3qd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441233/original/file-20220118-13-1mdt3qd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441233/original/file-20220118-13-1mdt3qd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441233/original/file-20220118-13-1mdt3qd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441233/original/file-20220118-13-1mdt3qd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441233/original/file-20220118-13-1mdt3qd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The ‘rice-test’ involves filling two bags with rice as a way of understanding breast implant sizes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The limits of individual expertise</h2>
<p>Our study suggests the more women solely relied on lay expertise to dictate how their breast surgery should go, the more likely they were to be disappointed with the outcome. Better results occurred when they carefully selected their doctors and were open to working with them.</p>
<p>Creating aesthetically beautiful breasts must consider myriad factors. But online forums for breast augmentation mostly focus on size and often ignore risks.</p>
<p>Those who reported trying to control the decision making, by asking for very specific products or techniques – as the woman in our introduction did – were more likely to be disappointed by the result. They described feeling their breasts were too small, too large, too perky, too fake-looking or not fake-looking enough.</p>
<p>When asked about why these bad outcomes occurred, they blamed themselves for being bad decision makers. “I should have asked more questions,” one said. “I should have researched more,” said another. “I should have communicated what I wanted better,” said yet another. </p>
<p>But more questions and research were not the solution. What they needed to question was the premise that a medical service provider should simply do what a customer asks.</p>
<h2>Research and ‘responsibilisation’</h2>
<p>This is part of a wider trend, in which access to unfettered information online has emboldened many people to believe they can work things out for themselves. </p>
<p>It is also reflects a trend in expert services that require deep technical knowledge, termed “responsibilisation”, in which customers are encouraged to do their own research and take responsibility for “<a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/10946705211012474">coproducing</a>” those services. </p>
<p>While being prepared is superficially good advice, such encouragement also shifts risks to individual customers, who invest a lot of time and effort to become educated through the internet because it is easily accessible and free. But all this “research” does not necessarily lead to better outcomes. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/distrust-of-experts-happens-when-we-forget-they-are-human-beings-76219">Distrust of experts happens when we forget they are human beings</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Our research also highlights the downside problem when people lose faith in medical expertise. </p>
<p>Women in our study reported happier outcomes when they listened to the doctor. </p>
<p>One woman we interviewed related telling her surgeon what she wanted and being told no. “You will never have that shape,” he said, referring to an image she had shown him. The doctor then discussed with her what was possible. She credits her satisfaction with the outcome to this process of working with her surgeon.</p>
<p>Our research offers a cautionary tale of the limits of lay expertise in online forums. The best outcomes occurred when consumers’ preferences were respected within the limits of medical possibilities. </p>
<p>So it pays to listen to experts. There is certainly a space for online research, but not to the extent that it makes us think we always know better.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/175060/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aphrodite Vlahos received funding from the Australian Government Research Training Program (RTP) Scholarship.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anna E Hartman receives financial support provided by the Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julie Ozanne does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Our study found encouraging people to do their own research comes with risks – including shifting too much responsibility onto the individual.Aphrodite Vlahos, Adjunct Lecturer, The University of MelbourneAnna E. Hartman, PhD Candidate (Marketing), The University of MelbourneJulie Ozanne, Professor of marketing, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1621812021-06-20T20:19:21Z2021-06-20T20:19:21ZCOVID vaccination has turned into a ‘battle of the brands’. But not everyone’s buying it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406934/original/file-20210617-15-1k2ng4i.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=3%2C0%2C1012%2C736&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.etsy.com/au/listing/1007181200/moderna-vaccinated-shirt-house-pfizer?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=vaccination+t+shirts+pfizer+moderna&ref=sr_gallery-1-2&organic_search_click=1&pro=1">Screenshot/MarigoldCustom/Etsy</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When we were hanging out for a COVID-19 vaccine in 2020, it was a bit like a horse race. We asked ourselves which vaccine would get over the line to win, and how quickly. Then, as multiple vaccines began reporting results from clinical trials, the race turned to which could offer superior efficacy and safety.</p>
<p>Flash forward to 2021, with multiple safe and effective vaccines approved, parts of the globe are experiencing “<a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/definition/brand-tribe">brand tribalism</a>”. Which <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/viral/team-pfizer-moderna-or-johnson-vaccine-rivalries-are-taking-over-n1263463">brand</a> of vaccine you want, or <a href="https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1003749933730249">can get</a>, has become a hot issue.</p>
<p>In the <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/viral/team-pfizer-moderna-or-johnson-vaccine-rivalries-are-taking-over-n1263463">United States</a>, young vaccinators post their vaccine “team” or “tribe” preferences on social media, saying, “<a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@idrinkurmilkshake/video/6946023620133031173?referer_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nbcnews.com%2F&referer_video_id=6946023620133031173&refer=embed">only hot people get the Pfizer Vaccine</a>”.</p>
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<p><iframe id="tc-infographic-589" class="tc-infographic" height="400px" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/infographics/589/70677a6f0fe00ba143dbc903aec539b7d2894b58/site/index.html" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
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<p>In <a href="https://medanthucl.com/2021/05/06/vaccine-envy-and-vaccine-snobbery-why-we-look-a-gift-horse-in-the-mouth-when-it-comes-to-the-covid-19-vaccine/">Britain</a>, the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine invokes patriotism as well as warm feelings about its not-for-profit roots, even as some consumers prefer the “fancier” Pfizer vaccine. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://medanthucl.com/2021/05/13/not-the-chinese-im-a-pfizer-girl-the-covert-politics-of-pharmaceutical-branding-in-covid-struck-hungary/">Hungary</a>, fraught cold war politics have resurfaced as consumers can be vaccinated with one developed in the East or West.</p>
<p>In Australia, we’ve seen something different. Since the move away from the AstraZeneca vaccine for people under 50 <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-setback-for-vaccine-rollout-with-astrazeneca-not-advised-for-people-under-50-158661">announced in April</a>, brand preferences became about safety rather than efficacy. </p>
<p>However, data from our research currently under peer-review and reports from <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/jun/10/boomers-had-their-chance-under-40s-getting-pfizer-vaccine-in-nsw-despite-not-being-eligible">elsewhere</a> show younger and ineligible people are still stumping up to try and get vaccinated with whatever vaccine they can get. </p>
<h2>The public isn’t so tuned in to flu vaccine brands</h2>
<p>Having numerous brands of a particular vaccine is not new. Every year, <a href="https://aus01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.health.gov.au%2Fsites%2Fdefault%2Ffiles%2Fdocuments%2F2021%2F06%2Fatagi-advice-on-seasonal-influenza-vaccines-in-2021.pdf&data=04%7C01%7Ckatie.attwell%40uwa.edu.au%7Cd13fd55f2155495a3a2908d92bc5d91f%7C05894af0cb2846d8871674cdb46e2226%7C1%7C1%7C637588951032235710%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=g7paH1F%2B97%2Ff76w0pn8LLOyNl9QhZJJCn9GP6uKzWI8%3D&reserved=0">multiple brands</a> of influenza vaccines are used across various age groups. </p>
<p>One of us (Carlson) has been interviewing people about influenza vaccination for over five years, and no participant has told her they prefer a specific brand. </p>
<p>Things are different with COVID-19 vaccines, as people are increasingly aware of the different brands available to them and others. Through our <a href="https://www.uwa.edu.au/projects/vaxpol-lab/coronavax-project">Coronavax</a> project, we are continually hearing brand names mentioned. </p>
<p>Yet some participants challenge the focus on brands. Alma*, a 50-year-old doctor, told us:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>No one normally cares what brand of vaccine you get! With the flu vaccination […] people don’t start quizzing me on “what brand is this one?”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Other participants, such as 71-year-old Frank*, were critical of the emphasis on brands. When asked his opinion on under 50s receiving Pfizer and over 50s receiving AstraZeneca, he turned the tables. He asked his interviewer (McKenzie) if she had received her flu vaccination this year (she had) and whether she knew which brand she had received (she did not).</p>
<p>Others expressed some brand preferences, and all were very aware of the different brands.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1395532532087627779"}"></div></p>
<p>The difference with flu vaccines, we hypothesise, is that although health-care providers are told about the different influenza vaccine brands so they can safely vaccinate people with the age-appropriate vaccine, the brands themselves are never front page news. </p>
<p>Flu vaccine brands are only ever sold to consumers as “the” flu vaccine. But COVID-19 vaccine brands feel like a buffet in which consumers don’t actually have much choice.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/which-covid-vaccine-is-best-heres-why-thats-really-hard-to-answer-161185">Which COVID vaccine is best? Here's why that's really hard to answer</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<h2>Vaccine preferences in Australia</h2>
<p>International examples of COVID vaccine “teams” and people sharing their vaccine allegiances don’t directly translate to Australia. That’s because here, brand availability cannot be divorced from systemic and vaccine supply problems, such as not having enough of the appropriate vaccines for the specific age groups requiring them. </p>
<p>So in Australia, we don’t see brand tribalism as a fun expression of identity that can help orient everyone towards vaccinating. </p>
<p>Rather, brand preferences in Australia have developed through changing vaccine recommendations, and positive or negative <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10198-021-01296-y">news coverage</a>. </p>
<p>In this imperfect scenario, governments need to keep backing the available vaccines that people can safely receive according to their age and risk profile, not <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/may/20/do-not-wait-to-be-vaccinated-greg-hunt-says-after-earlier-comments-sparked-confusion">encouraging people to wait</a> for new ones.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/new-astrazeneca-advice-is-a-safer-path-but-its-damaged-vaccine-confidence-the-government-must-urgently-restore-it-158763">New AstraZeneca advice is a safer path, but it's damaged vaccine confidence. The government must urgently restore it</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<h2>Any pros of brand awareness?</h2>
<p>One of the few benefits in the brand “team” wars is Australians are generally more aware of the science behind the development and safety of vaccines. </p>
<p>Most people we interviewed had recently learnt more about the science of vaccination. And most planned on being vaccinated with what was available to them, when it was (easily) available.</p>
<p>We hope this improved scientific literacy can help people appreciate the expertise that goes into creating vaccines, as well as the work of people like us who study their rollout, acceptance and uptake.</p>
<p>However, brand preference tribalism isn’t going to help Australia get vaccinated. Our <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/zero-covid-countries-face-genuine-dilemma-about-how-to-open-up-who-20210608-p57yyg.html">unique situation</a> of (necessary) directives about specific vaccine brands for different ages, our low rates of disease, and the <a href="https://www.health.gov.au/news/atagi-statement-on-revised-recommendations-on-the-use-of-covid-19-vaccine-astrazeneca-17-june-2021">increasing cut-off age for the AstraZeneca vaccine</a> announced recently have contributed to a broken roll-out strategy. </p>
<p>The conversations we need to keep having about brands are difficult ones. We are on quicksand and science keeps evolving. The most important message isn’t about which team is better. It’s about having a responsive system that cares about people. It changes things up when it needs to, however challenging that makes our vaccine rollout. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/diverse-spokespeople-and-humour-how-the-governments-next-ad-campaign-could-boost-covid-vaccine-uptake-162240">Diverse spokespeople and humour: how the government's next ad campaign could boost COVID vaccine uptake</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<h2>What we can do right now</h2>
<p>The best thing we can do is to tone down the brand narrative within the significant constraints we face. All COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective, and if the disease profile of our country changes, then the recommendations about who should have which vaccine may change again. All COVID-19 vaccines protect and benefit individuals and communities. </p>
<p>Most importantly, all Australians benefit when we can safely reopen to the world and to our local businesses and communities. Without painful lockdowns, vaccines are all we have to look after ourselves and each other. We’re on that team.</p>
<p>*<em>All names of research participants are pseudonyms.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/162181/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Katie Attwell receives funding from the Australian Research Council and the WA Department of Health. She is currently funded by ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award DE1901000158. She is a member of a government advisory committee, the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) COVID-19 Working Group. She is a specialist advisor to the Therapeutic Goods Administration. All views presented in this article are her own and not representative of any other organisation.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lara McKenzie receives funding from the WA Department of Health. All views presented in this article are her own and not representative of any other organisation.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Samantha Carlson receives funding from the WA Department of Health. All views presented in this article are her own and not representative of any other organisation. </span></em></p>In Australia, a preference for a particular brand of COVID vaccine is likely to change, depending on the latest health advice, and media reports.Katie Attwell, Senior Lecturer, The University of Western AustraliaLara McKenzie, Research Fellow, School of Social Sciences, The University of Western AustraliaSamantha Carlson, Post Doctoral Research Officer, Telethon Kids InstituteLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1372162020-07-09T09:50:00Z2020-07-09T09:50:00ZHow can we stop people wanting to buy illegal wildlife products?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/345766/original/file-20200706-3953-hn1qf2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4500%2C2997&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A smuggled pangolin rescued from the illegal wildlife trade in Indonesia.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/total-101-pangolins-smuggling-secured-natural-1551845018">Arief Budi Kusuma/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Conservationists have been working for decades to save species such as pangolins and rhinos from illegal hunting and trading. And, with fears that the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-new-coronavirus-emerged-from-the-global-wildlife-trade-and-may-be-devastating-enough-to-end-it-133333">coronavirus pandemic</a> originated from the wildlife trade, there’s never been more pressure to find solutions.</p>
<p>One approach is to try and reduce demand for wildlife products so that the market effectively dries up. Persuading people to stop eating pangolins or using rhino horn in medicine is likely to be difficult, but perhaps easier than enforcing a global ban on the international trade and less heavy-handed than stopping poachers.</p>
<p>Since 2015, 32 countries have pledged to <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/417231/kasane-statement-150325.pdf">eradicate the market for illegal wildlife products</a> and provided funding for projects aimed at encouraging customers to change their behaviour. But how effective are these likely to be?</p>
<p>It’s a relatively new approach – and not one that scientists have thoroughly tested. We decided to <a href="https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/csp2.248">review research on behaviour change</a> in public health to give us an idea of what works and what doesn’t. These ranged from efforts by community workers to <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10900-011-9472-5">improve sanitation</a> in rural India, to education programmes on avoiding <a href="https://asu.pure.elsevier.com/en/publications/the-adolescents-training-and-learning-to-avoid-steroids-program-p">steroids</a> among high school American football players in the US.</p>
<h2>Money, motivations and mores</h2>
<p>Projects designed to persuade people to change their behaviour rarely affect everyone they target. A <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10810730490271548">study of health campaigns</a> that used mass media channels, from television to billboards, showed that, on average, just 8% of the target audience changed their behaviour. One project which ran public television advertisements and distributed cheap devices able to estimate blood alcohol levels to shops and bars resulted in a <a href="https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/pdf/10.2105/AJPH.79.3.287">5% decrease in drink-driving incidents</a>. </p>
<p>But campaigns that tried to get people to do something new, such as use seat belts regularly, were more successful than those that tried to get people to stop doing something, such as quit smoking. So conservationists may have more success by promoting a safe and acceptable alternative to a wildlife product than just telling consumers to stop altogether.</p>
<p>The most effective projects target a specific audience and consider the other factors competing with their message too – like anti-obesity projects aiming to overcome TV adverts for unhealthy food. But even then, success is not guaranteed. Another <a href="https://academic.oup.com/heapol/article/32/1/110/2555385">recent study</a> found that less than half of high-quality health campaigns have positive results. </p>
<p>Other fields attempting to change the behaviour of their viewers, such as advertising, tend to have more money and experience than people trying the same methods in conservation. This all suggests that progress in reducing demand for wildlife products will be slow. A single campaign aimed at rhino horn buyers in Vietnam might reduce demand, but it probably won’t stop it altogether.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/rhino-horn-must-become-a-socially-unacceptable-product-in-asia-103498">Rhino horn must become a socially unacceptable product in Asia</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p>Research also shows that behaviours change when projects account for a person’s motivations and desires. This is why incentivising people to quit smoking with cash prizes (so-called “<a href="https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/PH6/documents/behaviour-change-taylor-et-al-sociocultural-review2">quit and win</a>” contests) rarely work in the long term. Fewer than one in 500 smokers maintained their good habits when the rewards stopped, because the underlying reasons for smoking weren’t addressed,</p>
<p>The same issue applies to conservation. Projects are likely to fail or have unintended consequences if they don’t tackle the <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/7vjrg/">things motivating</a> people to buy wildlife products. In Japan, the horns of rhinos and saiga antelopes are believed to have similar medicinal effects. When the 1980 international trade ban on rhino horn came into effect, the Japanese traditional medicine industry just <a href="https://www.trafficj.org/publication/16_Setting_Suns.pdf">switched to saiga horn instead</a>. Unfortunately, the saiga antelope is now classified as <a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/19832/50194357">Critically Endangered</a>, due in part to illegal hunting for horns. </p>
<p>Luckily, market research can help us understand these motivations, and work out who may be most receptive to change. For instance, a <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0134787">status-conscious consumer in Vietnam</a> might be set on buying wild meat, but farmed meat will be more acceptable to those concerned about price.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/345787/original/file-20200706-3943-je6ir5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/345787/original/file-20200706-3943-je6ir5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345787/original/file-20200706-3943-je6ir5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345787/original/file-20200706-3943-je6ir5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345787/original/file-20200706-3943-je6ir5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345787/original/file-20200706-3943-je6ir5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345787/original/file-20200706-3943-je6ir5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fish in a wild meat market in Vietnam.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/wild-market-selling-bloody-raw-fish-1650623893">MATATABINOTABI/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Tread carefully</h2>
<p>Campaigns can also make things worse if they accidentally change a person’s perceptions and values. One drug prevention programme aimed at teenagers in the US actually <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0022427898035004002">increased illegal drug taking</a> this way. It involved uniformed police officers visiting schools to warn students about the harmful effects of drugs, making drug use seem more common than it actually was, and so more socially acceptable. </p>
<p>Equally, many illegal wildlife products, such as pangolin meat and scales, are used by a relatively small proportion of people. Mass media campaigns give the impression that eating pangolins is more much common, and could unwittingly encourage others to follow suit.</p>
<p>No single approach or project is going to work on its own. If conservationists want to save a species through reducing demand for wildlife products, we must plan for the long term and think about what could go wrong. </p>
<p>We don’t want to undermine public support and create tensions in communities by acting without fully considering the consequences. This is what happened when a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S027795361730758X">ban on wild meat</a> in Sierra Leone turned people against expert advice. During the 2013-2016 Ebola outbreak, the government told villagers that wild meat was risky, but this contradicted the everyday experiences of people who had safely eaten it for generations. Communities became suspicious and suspected a sinister motive behind the ban.</p>
<p>Changing people’s behaviour is possible if we can promote new habits, tackle the core motivations behind buying illegal wildlife products, consider the cultural context of using those peoducts and focus on a target audience without making the illegal behaviour seem more widespread than it actually is. Armed with this knowledge, there is hope for turning the tide against this destructive trade.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/137216/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Diogo Veríssimo is the Director of Conservation Conservation Marketing and Storytelling at On the Edge Conservation.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bob Smith and Laura Thomas-Walters do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Promote new habits, find out why people engage with the wildlife trade and don’t make it seem more widespread than it really is.Laura Thomas-Walters, PhD Candidate in Conservation, University of KentBob Smith, Director, Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology, University of KentDiogo Veríssimo, Research Fellow in Conservation, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1258812019-12-25T21:47:09Z2019-12-25T21:47:09ZHow to pick the right sunscreen when you’re blinded by choice<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306504/original/file-20191212-85404-mfdgo7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C1%2C992%2C664&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">We're spoilt for choice when it comes to sunscreen in Australia. So how do you choose the right one?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/blurred-image-rows-hair-care-skin-788928742">from www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>There’s an enormous variety of sunscreens to choose from. <a href="https://www.woolworths.com.au/shop/search/products?searchTerm=sunscreen">Major</a> <a href="https://shop.coles.com.au/a/a-national/everything/search/sunscreen">supermarkets</a> each sell more than 60 options. And one large <a href="https://www.chemistwarehouse.com.au/search?searchtext=sunscreen&searchmode=allwords">pharmacy chain</a> sells more than 100.</p>
<p>So how do you choose sunscreen that’s right for you?</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/inducing-choice-paralysis-how-retailers-bury-customers-in-an-avalanche-of-options-116078">Inducing choice paralysis: how retailers bury customers in an avalanche of options</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<h2>The big 4 must haves</h2>
<p>Sunscreens need to tick these <a href="https://wiki.cancer.org.au/policy/Fact_sheet_-_Sunscreen">four major boxes</a>:</p>
<ol>
<li><p><strong>The sun protection factor, or SPF, should be at least 30, preferably 50.</strong> SPF describes how much UV gets to the skin. SPF50 allows just 1/50th (2%) of the UV to reach the skin</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Go for broad spectrum protection</strong>, which filters the <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs40257-017-0290-0">full UV light spectrum</a>. UVB rays (290-320nm wavelengths) are responsible for most sunburn and DNA damage, but UVA rays (320-400nm) also cause DNA damage and accelerate skin ageing</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Aim for water resistant formulations</strong>, which <a href="https://www.dermcoll.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/ACD-Position-Statement-Sunscreen-March-2017-updated.pdf">stay on longer</a> in sweaty conditions, and when exercising or swimming. But no sunscreen is completely waterproof </p></li>
<li><p><strong>Make sure the sunscreen is approved in Australia</strong>. Approval from the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) is the final must-have. All sunscreens for sale in Australia must meet the <a href="https://www.tga.gov.au/book/3-regulatory-categories-sunscreens">TGA’s requirements</a> and will carry an AUST number on the packaging. They can only contain ingredients from an approved list that have been tested for safety and efficacy. And the SPF, water resistance and broad spectrum action must be established by <a href="https://www.tga.gov.au/book/4-labelling-and-advertising">testing on human skin</a>. Sunscreens bought overseas don’t necessarily have these safeguards, so proceed with caution.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Once you’ve ticked off the big four, you can limit your options by how the sunscreen is delivered, its ingredients, and other factors.</p>
<h2>Pump pack, roll-on or spray?</h2>
<p>The sunscreen delivery system is more important than you might think. Sunscreen works best when you <a href="https://www.tga.gov.au/community-qa/sunscreens-information-consumers">use lots</a> — a teaspoon for each limb, a teaspoon each for your front and back, and a teaspoon for your face and neck. </p>
<p>This is easiest to achieve with pump packs or squeeze tubes. People apply far less sunscreen when they use a <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamadermatology/fullarticle/1149913">roll-on</a>. Spray-on sunscreen is <a href="https://www.cancer.org.au/news/blog/prevention/cancer-council-and-sunscreens-what-you-need-to-know-this-summer.html">even worse</a>; the TGA recommends you apply <a href="https://www.tga.gov.au/behind-news/be-sun-smart-wear-sunscreen">one-third of a whole can</a> for proper coverage. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dJcLUCyn38o?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">How to use sunscreen (Cancer Council)</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Look and feel, sensitive skin and kids</h2>
<p>Now we get down to the finer choices in sunscreen, and they depend on your personal concerns and preferences. Here are a few common choices.</p>
<p><strong>How to avoiding looking greasy</strong></p>
<p>Greasiness is the most off-putting thing about sunscreen for <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28449221">many</a> <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ajd.12636">Australians</a>. </p>
<p>But there are non-greasy formulations, often marketed as “dry-touch” or “matte finish”. These can be comparatively expensive, but worth it if greasiness is your main barrier to using sunscreen. </p>
<p>Your skin may still look shiny immediately after applying it. But it should return to a matte finish within 10-20 minutes as the sunscreen settles into the epidermis, the outer layer of the skin. </p>
<p><strong>How about sunscreen for sensitive or acne-prone skin?</strong></p>
<p><a href="https://www.dermnetnz.org/topics/sensitive-skin/">Sensitive skin</a> is irritated by a wide variety of cosmetics, lotions and fragrances. So, you can use ones marketed as kids’ sunscreen because these tend to be fragrance-free. </p>
<p>You can also choose sunscreens with ingredients such as <a href="https://www.tga.gov.au/literature-review-safety-titanium-dioxide-and-zinc-oxide-nanoparticles-sunscreens">zinc oxide or titanium dioxide</a>, which <a href="https://www.dermcoll.edu.au/atoz/sun-protection-sunscreens/">partially reflect and also absorb</a> UV rays.</p>
<p>Those so-called physical blockers are <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0887233311001585?via%3Dihub">very unlikely</a> to cause allergic or irritant rashes. But they appear white on the skin, unless you chose an option with nano-sized particles, which are invisible to the eye.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306488/original/file-20191212-85397-i1352o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306488/original/file-20191212-85397-i1352o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306488/original/file-20191212-85397-i1352o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306488/original/file-20191212-85397-i1352o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306488/original/file-20191212-85397-i1352o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306488/original/file-20191212-85397-i1352o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306488/original/file-20191212-85397-i1352o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306488/original/file-20191212-85397-i1352o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sunscreens containing zinc oxide or titanium oxide are unlikely to inflame sensitive skin.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/cheerful-freckled-girl-113065540">from www.shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>If your skin is prone to acne, <a href="https://www.dermcoll.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/ACD-Position-Statement-Sunscreen-March-2017-updated.pdf">good options</a> are lotions or gels, rather than creams, and products marked oil-free or non-comedogenic.</p>
<p>Sensitive and acne-prone skin is often limited to the face and neck, so it can be cheaper to have a specialist sunscreen for those parts and a cheaper one for the rest of your body.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.dermnetnz.org/topics/sunscreen-allergy/">Sunscreen allergies</a> are rarer but do affect up to <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140673698121682?via%3Dihub">3% of people</a>. They’re generally caused by a single sunscreen component, usually preservatives or fragrances. A dermatologist can patch test individual ingredients, which you can then avoid by checking labels. </p>
<p><strong>What’s the best sunscreen for my kids?</strong></p>
<p><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26101815">Parents worry</a> about the effects of both UV exposure and chemical exposure. And of course, small children can be pretty anti-sunscreen.</p>
<p>All Australian sunscreen chemicals are approved by the TGA and are <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1753-6405.12873">recommended for daily use</a>, even on kids. Plus, many kids’ sunscreens are made with sensitive skin in mind, because skin sensitivity is <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1468-2494.2012.00754.x">more common in young children</a>. If your child doesn’t have <a href="https://dermnetnz.org/topics/sensitive-skin/">sensitive skin</a> (skin that reacts with itching or burning sensations to a wide range of body care products), adult sunscreens are fine too.</p>
<p>However, <a href="https://www.dermcoll.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/ACD-Position-Statement-Sunscreen-March-2017-updated.pdf">babies under six months old</a> need a physical blocker sunscreen.</p>
<h2>What not to do</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://iheard.com.au/question/i-heard-of-a-recipe-for-natural-homemade-sunscreen-do-these-work/">Cancer Council</a> and the <a href="https://www.tga.gov.au/blogs/tga-topics/everything-you-ever-wanted-know-about-sunscreens-were-afraid-ask">TGA</a> strongly recommend against homemade sunscreens. </p>
<p>Natural oils and other ingredients promoted in recipes found online generally have <a href="https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/325217.php#1">a low SPF</a>. And, as they have not been tested for causing irritation, can react unpredictably with the skin.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.tga.gov.au/book/2-therapeutic-sunscreen-or-cosmetic-sunscreen">Cosmetics that contain sunscreen</a>, such as lipstick or foundation with an SPF rating, are not regulated as tightly as regular sunscreens in Australia. </p>
<p>Cosmetics with an SPF 30 or higher can have good protection <a href="https://wiki.cancer.org.au/policy/Fact_sheet_-_Sunscreen">when you first apply them</a>. But like regular sunscreens, they need to be reapplied throughout the day. That’s not something we usually do, unless you’re going for the caked-on look. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-happens-to-your-skin-when-you-get-sunburnt-53865">Explainer: what happens to your skin when you get sunburnt?</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/125881/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Spray, pump or roll-on? Matte, fragrance-free, oil-free? No wonder we’re confused when it comes to buying sunscreen.Katie Lee, Research assistant, The University of QueenslandErin McMeniman, Senior Lecturer Princess Alexandra Hospital Southside Clinical Unit and Casual Research Assistant, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1222542019-12-18T13:51:45Z2019-12-18T13:51:45ZHere’s how you can be nudged to eat healthier, recycle and make better decisions every day<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307444/original/file-20191217-58353-1ngmh4r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=318%2C103%2C2672%2C1809&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Were you subtly encouraged to make that menu choice?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/woman-choose-food-decide-delicious-dish-1113934814">Supavadee butradee/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Every day, you make important choices – about whether to feast on fries or take a brisk walk, whether to spend or save your paycheck, whether to buy the sustainable option or the disposable plastic one. </p>
<p>Life is made up of countless decisions. <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300122237/nudge">The idea of nudging people</a> in the right direction, instead of relying on their internal motivation, has gained traction over the last decade.</p>
<p>In general, nudging involves gently coaxing someone into a decision or behavior. The perfect nudge is one that results in the desired decision or behavior without the person recognizing any external influence.</p>
<p>Think of employees being <a href="https://www.nber.org/chapters/c4539.pdf">automatically enrolled in retirement savings programs</a>. Workers who must opt out, instead of needing to opt in, participate more in retirement savings. Or picture those little cards in hotel bathrooms encouraging people to reuse their towels by stating that most hotel guests do, instead of appealing to the guests’ social responsibility.</p>
<p>In these and countless similar situations, people feel in control, but were nudged to prefer one option over the other.</p>
<p>So how does all this nudging work within the mind? As someone who <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Aw35hfgAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">studies consumer decision-making</a>, I can tell you: It’s complicated.</p>
<h2>You’re of two (or more) minds</h2>
<p>Neuroscientists, starting with pioneers like Antonio Damasio, have shown that <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/297609/descartes-error-by-antonio-damasio/9780143036227">the brain is not like a computer</a> where complex programs deliver optimal solutions. In fact, the mind seems to involve <a href="https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393334777">many relatively simple systems</a>, some inside the head and some <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/embodied-mind-revised-edition">distributed throughout the body</a>.</p>
<p>These systems are not always in agreement. Some systems are selfish and shortsighted, some care about relationships with others and some prioritize transcendent things such as God and the future of humanity. In addition, people aren’t equally conscious of each mechanism, so that <a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374533557">sometimes you make decisions carefully and thoughtfully</a> and other times you make them fast and intuitively.</p>
<p>When your systems are in contention, which one informs your next decision <a href="https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393334777">depends on what else is happening</a> in that moment. A diabetic, for example, may thoughtfully consider his long-term health and family responsibilities – and even God’s will – when deciding to eat the salad and not the breadsticks at Olive Garden one day. But on his next visit, he might respond to the smell of fresh-baked bread by devouring every breadstick in the basket. Different situations, different mechanisms, different decisions.</p>
<h2>Appeals to your internal norms</h2>
<p>Nudging can work via many mechanisms, some conscious and some not. Typically you don’t recognize you’re being nudged.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307269/original/file-20191216-124027-1unsvxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307269/original/file-20191216-124027-1unsvxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307269/original/file-20191216-124027-1unsvxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307269/original/file-20191216-124027-1unsvxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307269/original/file-20191216-124027-1unsvxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307269/original/file-20191216-124027-1unsvxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307269/original/file-20191216-124027-1unsvxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307269/original/file-20191216-124027-1unsvxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Everyone else reuses the towels …</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/lePb2Ojozt4">Andrea Davis/Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One nudge method relies on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2006.09.004">highlighting the decisions of others</a> you may consider influential. After reading that “Most other guests staying at this hotel reuse towels,” many people envision others like them or maybe of higher status reusing towels. They feel compelled to align their behavior with that of the majority in order to fit in. The decision is theirs, but they’ve been nudged.</p>
<p>Another nudge technique focuses on how one should act in a particular situation. These are sometimes called “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2006.09.004">injunctive norms</a>,” and they can vary by culture. Imagine the towel appeal had instead read, “By reusing towels, you join millions who care about the environment.” In this case the guest’s subconscious concern about earning the disapproval of those “millions” of others triggers him to hang up his towels.</p>
<p>And if the towel message is instead phrased that “reusing towels meets a high standard for environmental responsibility,” it highlights self-imposed standards or norms, if they exist in the decision maker. Such personal norms are termed injunctive because they involve beliefs about right and wrong that consider transcendent and abstract concepts, such as devotion and obedience to God.</p>
<p>Interestingly, such prompting – whether by subjective social or personal norms – does not work on everyone. <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/philosophy/political-philosophy/grammar-society-nature-and-dynamics-social-norms?format=PB">Some may work better</a> in some cultures (for instance, in Asian societies) and with some age groups (such as in younger people) than others.</p>
<h2>Setting the scene for a desired choice</h2>
<p>Another way to nudge people is to change the decision environment. This technique is sometimes called “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/bdm.1897">choice architecture</a>.”</p>
<p>Let’s assume that a grocery store is trying to encourage consumers to purchase ecologically responsible products, such as recycled paper notebooks. If all eco-friendly products are displayed together in an end-of-aisle display, people notice and their internalized norms are activated. But it may not translate into multiple purchases, because buying just one product suffices to meet the norm. If the products are displayed throughout the store, though, so multiple in-store displays can re-trigger the internalized norm, it’s likely that more ecologically responsible purchases will be made in the same shopping trip. </p>
<p>Nudging people is not deception. In most cases, nudging works by raising a particular decision or behavior’s prominence. If you’re already predisposed toward something – like eating healthy – a nudge helps tip your mental mechanisms in that direction. Nudges are reinforcement, especially in cases when your decision-making mechanisms are in contention with each other – like when the aroma of fresh bread is wafting through the air.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307271/original/file-20191216-124009-vt83x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307271/original/file-20191216-124009-vt83x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307271/original/file-20191216-124009-vt83x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307271/original/file-20191216-124009-vt83x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307271/original/file-20191216-124009-vt83x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307271/original/file-20191216-124009-vt83x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307271/original/file-20191216-124009-vt83x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307271/original/file-20191216-124009-vt83x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">That scent of fresh-baked bread could be used to nudge you in the direction the restaurant prefers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/KZwp2IIyXmA">Toa Heftiba/Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At the same time, that wafting aroma is in itself a nudge. It may be deliberately enhanced to promote pleasurable consumption that improves mood and may lead to more spending or more generous tipping. Nudging can work to enhance or suppress virtuous behaviors, and it is the responsibility of companies and organizations to use nudging judiciously and responsibly.</p>
<p>Nudging cannot make people do something they don’t want to do, although sometimes the desire is nonconscious and lurking in the background. It only encourages them to follow through on a decision or behavior that may be currently overshadowed by other factors. It’s when individuals believe consciously that the decision or behavior – be it healthy eating, buying environmentally responsible products, or saving for retirement – is beneficial that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/15534510500181459">nudging works best</a>.</p>
<p>[ <em>Insight, in your inbox each day.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=insight">You can get it with The Conversation’s email newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/122254/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>José Antonio Rosa does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A scholar who studies consumer decision-making explains just what it is in the human mind that makes people susceptible to nudges toward one behavior or another.José Antonio Rosa, Professor of Marketing and John and Deborah Ganoe Faculty Fellow, Iowa State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1236782019-10-02T12:24:02Z2019-10-02T12:24:02ZSouth America’s second-largest forest is also burning – and ‘environmentally friendly’ charcoal is subsidizing its destruction<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/294592/original/file-20190927-185369-95ahrc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C24%2C4056%2C3011&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Paraguayan Chaco, South America's second largest forest, is rapidly disappearing as agriculture extends deeper into what was once forest. Here, isolated stands of trees remain amid the farms.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Joel E. Correia</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-amazon-is-burning-4-essential-reads-on-brazils-vanishing-rainforest-122288">fires raging across the Brazilian Amazon</a> have captured the world’s attention. Meanwhile, South America’s second-largest forest, the <a href="http://data.globalforestwatch.org/datasets/3d668cf0fbcb415bba1ec00bc6263877_5?geometry=-63.006%2C-24.454%2C-57.917%2C-23.576">Gran Chaco</a>, is disappearing in plain sight. </p>
<p>The Gran Chaco, which spans from Bolivia and Brazil to Paraguay and Argentina, is extremely bio-diverse, with more than <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/01/agribusiness-harm-to-gran-chaco-genetic-diversity-centuries-to-heal/">3,400 plant and 900 animal species</a> – including <a href="https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/what-are-quebracho-trees.html">quebracho blanco trees</a>, tapirs and jaguars. It is also home to at least 30 indigenous peoples, including the Ayoreo, some of whom live in <a href="https://www.iniciativa-amotocodie.org/categorias/monitoreo/aislados-y-territorios/">voluntary isolation in their historic homelands</a>, as well <a href="http://scholar.harvard.edu/files/goossen/files/goossen_mennonites_in_latin_america_2016.pdf">Mennonite colonies</a>. </p>
<p>Now, due to the some of the <a href="https://www.wri.org/blog/2015/09/satellites-uncover-5-surprising-hotspots-tree-cover-loss?utm_campaign=GFWUpdate2014&utm_medium=wrisocialmedia&utm_content=GFWUpdate2014">fastest deforestation in the world</a>, this once enormous ecosystem <a href="http://d2ouvy59p0dg6k.cloudfront.net/downloads/living_forests_report_chapter_5___saving_forests_at_risk.pdf">may soon be gone outside of protected areas</a>. Since 2001, more than <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0959378017305964">31,000 square miles of forest were felled</a> to make way for agriculture and cattle ranching in the Gran Chaco. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/295110/original/file-20191001-173369-1hxkjy1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/295110/original/file-20191001-173369-1hxkjy1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/295110/original/file-20191001-173369-1hxkjy1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=323&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295110/original/file-20191001-173369-1hxkjy1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=323&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295110/original/file-20191001-173369-1hxkjy1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=323&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295110/original/file-20191001-173369-1hxkjy1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295110/original/file-20191001-173369-1hxkjy1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295110/original/file-20191001-173369-1hxkjy1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Deforestation in South America since 2001, shown in pink.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.globalforestwatch.org</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/92078/deforestation-in-paraguay">More than half of that deforestation</a> took place in Paraguay, a small South American country of 7 million. </p>
<p>As in the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00045608.2015.1060924">Amazon to the north</a>, cattle ranching and farming are the primary <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0959378017305964">drivers of deforestation</a> in Paraguay’s Gran Chaco. </p>
<p>But beyond beef and soy, the cleared land of the Gran Chaco produces some pretty unexpected stuff, too – everyday products that are exported and sold abroad to consumers who may never know their purchases contribute to the <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/09/gran-chaco-south-americas-second-largest-forest-at-risk-of-collapsing/">destruction of South America’s second largest forest</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/294593/original/file-20190927-185379-1hmk26m.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/294593/original/file-20190927-185379-1hmk26m.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294593/original/file-20190927-185379-1hmk26m.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294593/original/file-20190927-185379-1hmk26m.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294593/original/file-20190927-185379-1hmk26m.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294593/original/file-20190927-185379-1hmk26m.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294593/original/file-20190927-185379-1hmk26m.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Freshly chained and scraped: Where a Paraguayan forest once stood, a cow pasture is in the making.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Joel E. Correia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Growing pains in the Chaco</h2>
<p>I have investigated the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03066150.2017.1384726">spread of export-oriented agriculture in Paraguay</a> since 2011. Paraguay, the <a href="https://www.land-links.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/USAID_Land_Tenure_TGCC_Paraguay_Risk_Assessment_June-2017.pdf">eighth largest exporter of beef</a> globally, sells <a href="https://gain.fas.usda.gov/Recent%20GAIN%20Publications/Livestock%20and%20Products%20Annual_Buenos%20Aires_Paraguay_8-16-2019.pdf">350,000 tons</a> of beef each year to <a href="https://oec.world/en/visualize/tree_map/hs92/export/pry/show/0202/2017/">Russia, Israel, Chile</a> and beyond. </p>
<p>There are at least <a href="https://gain.fas.usda.gov/Recent%20GAIN%20Publications/Livestock%20and%20Products%20Annual_Buenos%20Aires_Paraguay_8-16-2019.pdf">14 million</a> head of cattle in the Paraguayan Chaco and over <a href="https://www.ultimahora.com/ganaderia-avanzara-el-chaco-4-millones-ha-n1108382.html">4 million hectares</a> of land devoted to cattle ranching – an area larger than Belgium. </p>
<p>The Paraguayan government hopes to climb into the <a href="https://blogs.iadb.org/integration-trade/en/meat-and-meat-products-exports-in-paraguay/">top five of global beef exporters</a> in the next 10 years. To meet that goal, ranchers will need more land – a lot of it – since Paraguay’s beef industry is <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/24694452.2017.1360761">based on grazing</a>, rather than the feedlot model prevalent in the U.S. </p>
<p>To clear forest land for grazing, both <a href="http://www.infona.gov.py/application/files/8414/2893/9388/Ley_N_422_Forestal.pdf">legally</a> and <a href="http://www.bad-ag.info/nearly-a-quarter-of-chaco-deforestation-potentially-illegal-says-paraguay-enforcement-agency/">illegally</a>, Paraguayan cattle ranchers use what’s called “<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1747423X.2013.807314">chaining</a>.” That means leveling the forest with tractors that drag heavy chains. Then they burn the fallen trees. </p>
<p>Increasingly, some Paraguayan ranchers are realizing that there’s money to be made off those felled trees, too. Rather than just incinerating the wood in their fields, they turn it into carbón – or charcoal, in English. </p>
<p>Across the Paraguayan Chaco, large brick kilns located off of main roads slowly bake the wood cleared from nearby forests, transforming it into charcoal that fuels weekend cookouts worldwide.</p>
<p>That charcoal is then stacked high on trucks that <a href="http://www.mades.gov.py/expediente/industria-de-caroneria-planta-de-produccion-de-carbon-y-briquetas-compra-de-lena-fraccionadora-y-acopio-de-carbon-vegetal-exportacion/">carry it to Paraguayan exporters</a>, who ship it to <a href="https://oec.world/en/visualize/tree_map/hs92/export/pry/show/4402/2017/">Europe, the Middle East and the United States</a>, among other major markets.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293414/original/file-20190920-135092-1i4ku2w.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293414/original/file-20190920-135092-1i4ku2w.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293414/original/file-20190920-135092-1i4ku2w.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293414/original/file-20190920-135092-1i4ku2w.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293414/original/file-20190920-135092-1i4ku2w.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293414/original/file-20190920-135092-1i4ku2w.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293414/original/file-20190920-135092-1i4ku2w.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Kilns making charcoal in Paraguay’s Chaco.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Joel E. Correia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Weekend cookouts and luxury leather</h2>
<p>In those places, Paraguayan charcoal is often labeled it as “<a href="https://medium.com/@Earthsight/choice-cuts-e7d736067915">natural</a>” or “<a href="http://www.carbochaco.com/V2/index.html#carbon">environmentally certified</a>”, suggesting that they are sustainable. </p>
<p>Paraguayan charcoal may be a “natural” product, but it’s hardly environmentally friendly. That’s because making and selling charcoal from recently cut trees – trees that previously went to waste – makes deforestation more profitable. </p>
<p>As a result, purchases of this product indirectly contribute to the deforestation of the Chaco, sometimes turning environmentally minded consumers into unknowing accomplices in the decimation of South America’s second-largest forest.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/294400/original/file-20190926-51414-1q5c0zh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/294400/original/file-20190926-51414-1q5c0zh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294400/original/file-20190926-51414-1q5c0zh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294400/original/file-20190926-51414-1q5c0zh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294400/original/file-20190926-51414-1q5c0zh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294400/original/file-20190926-51414-1q5c0zh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294400/original/file-20190926-51414-1q5c0zh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bags of recently made charcoal being hauled through the Chaco to markets for sale.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Joel E. Correia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A similar problem arises with another Chaco good that’s sold far and wide: leather.</p>
<p>Paraguay exported <a href="https://www.aduana.gov.py/uploads/estadisticas/Analisis_Gacetilla_Enero_2019.pdf">nearly 9 million pounds</a> of leather – a byproduct of its beef industry – last year. </p>
<p>Paraguayan leather is refined and used in numerous industries across the world, particularly in Europe. </p>
<p>Car companies <a href="https://www.ip.gov.py/ip/cuero-paraguayo-se-destaca-por-su-calidad-en-europa/">BMW, Citroën, Peugeot, Renault, Porsche and Ferrari</a> all use <a href="https://cencoprod.com/">leather from the Chaco</a> to wrap everything from seats to <a href="http://www.5dias.com.py/2015/06/ferrari-y-porsche-siguen-apostando-a-los-cueros-made-in-paraguay-para-sus-volantes/">steering wheels</a>. </p>
<p>Playing a pickup game of soccer this weekend? Your shoes <a href="http://www.chacosinfronteras.com/2016/10/31/cueros-de/">could be made of the same stuff</a>. </p>
<p>Leather and charcoal don’t just make environmental degradation of the Paraguayan Chaco forest more profitable – sometimes, they are produced using forced labor.</p>
<p>According to recent <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/sep/18/forced-labour-in-paraguay-the-darkness-at-the-bottom-of-the-global-supply-chain">complaints filed with the Paraguayan attorney general’s office and labor department</a>, some Chaco cattle ranches <a href="https://reporterbrasil.org.br/2018/07/brazilian-meat-industry-encroaches-on-paraguayan-chaco/">exploit indigenous people</a>, paying extremely low wages for jobs like fence building, clearing land or herding cattle. Some workers must buy food from expensive ranch stores using systems of credit that entrap them in debt.</p>
<p>A September 2018 <a href="https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/1639596">United Nations report</a> on contemporary forms of slavery in Paraguay shows that forced labor on Chaco cattle ranches and related industries is slowly improving due to increased compliance with labor laws, but affirms that it remains prevalent.</p>
<h2>Going, going, …</h2>
<p>It can be overwhelming, I know, for consumers to investigate whether their leather, say, or the charcoal for their BBQ is ethically sourced. </p>
<p>There are so many worrying environmental problems in the world, and global supply chains are incredibly complex. So for consumers living far from the places that produce the goods they buy – even very conscientious ones – it is easier to focus on extraordinary events like the Amazon fires than to contemplate the unintended consequences of a weekend cookout.</p>
<p>But commonplace consumption habits <a href="https://theconversation.com/5-charts-show-how-your-household-drives-up-global-greenhouse-gas-emissions-119968">matter when it comes to global environmental health</a>. The things we buy may support the harmful underlying practices and industries that lead to acute crises like Amazonian fires or generalized problems driven by <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/gcb.13521">climate change</a>. </p>
<p>That said, there’s no “out of sight, out of mind” when it comes to social and environmental justice. If South America’s great Gran Chaco forest continues to be leveled at the current rates, it <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/113/15/4021">will recede</a> before most people even knew it existed. </p>
<p>
<section class="inline-content">
<img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/265344/original/file-20190322-36244-jav5vf.png?w=128&h=128">
<div>
<header></header>
<p><a href="http://www.aag.org">Joel E. Correia is a member of the American Association of Geographers.</a></p>
<footer>The association is a funding partner of The Conversation US.</footer>
</div>
</section>
</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/123678/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>In addition to university funding, Joel E. Correia has received support from the National Science Foundation and Fulbright Hays to conduct research in Paraguay's Chaco. He is also a member of the American Association of Geographers, a Conversation US member organization. This article represents the author's view, not that of the aforementioned funders. </span></em></p>The cleared land of Paraguay’s Chaco forest produces everyday products like charcoal and leather that are sold abroad to consumers who may never know the unsavory origins of their purchases.Joel E. Correia, Assistant Professor of Latin American Studies, University of FloridaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1160782019-06-16T20:05:05Z2019-06-16T20:05:05ZInducing choice paralysis: how retailers bury customers in an avalanche of options<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279485/original/file-20190614-158921-1kbfer5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Three decades of behavioural experiments show consumers given too many choices are more likely to make a bad or no choice.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Do you think you are paying more than you should for energy, banking, insurance, internet and phone services? You are not alone, and you are probably right. </p>
<p>Companies offer a growing number of deals that supposedly enable you to choose what is best for you. Every basic economics textbook tells us greater choice should deliver cheaper prices. But in reality this isn’t necessarily the case. </p>
<p>So what’s going on? </p>
<p>A big part of the answer is that businesses are taking advantage of the behavioural phenomenon of “consumer paralysis” to maximise profits. </p>
<p>They provide us with many plans and deals to make us feel like we are in control, but too many choices actually leads most of us to make a bad (or no) choice.</p>
<h2>Energy pricing</h2>
<p>Let’s consider how this works in the context of Australia’s electricity market. </p>
<p>In most areas of the country, residential customers have at least half a dozen retailers to choose from. </p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279452/original/file-20190614-32317-10r0kug.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279452/original/file-20190614-32317-10r0kug.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279452/original/file-20190614-32317-10r0kug.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279452/original/file-20190614-32317-10r0kug.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279452/original/file-20190614-32317-10r0kug.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279452/original/file-20190614-32317-10r0kug.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279452/original/file-20190614-32317-10r0kug.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279452/original/file-20190614-32317-10r0kug.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Market share by generation capacity by region, January 2018.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.accc.gov.au/system/files/Retail%20Electricity%20Pricing%20Inquiry%E2%80%94Final%20Report%20June%202018_0.pdf">ACCC, Retail Electricity Pricing Inquiry Final Report</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>Nonetheless, according to the <a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/system/files/Retail%20Electricity%20Pricing%20Inquiry%E2%80%94Final%20Report%20June%202018_0.pdf">Australian Consumer and Competition Commission</a>, electricity prices and profit margins are among <a href="https://theconversation.com/factcheck-are-australians-paying-twice-as-much-for-electricity-as-americans-69980">the highest in the world</a>, and rising. The consumer watchdog calculates that in the decade to 2018 the average residential electricity bill increased by 55% (or 35% in real terms) – and only a very small part of that had to do with alleged culprits <a href="https://theconversation.com/factcheck-qanda-are-south-australias-high-electricity-prices-the-consequence-of-renewable-energy-policy-93594">such as renewable energy</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/energy-prices-are-high-because-consumers-are-paying-for-useless-profit-boosting-infrastructure-86045">Energy prices are high because consumers are paying for useless, profit-boosting infrastructure</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Australia’s biggest electricity company, AGL, made a net profit of A$1.6 billion in 2018 – 194% more than the year before.</p>
<hr>
<p><iframe id="I3vT6" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/I3vT6/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<hr>
<p>Depending on where you live, AGL offers up to 11 energy plans to residential customers. There’s the “Savers” plan, “Savers Online”, “Everyday”, “Freedom”, “Standing Offer”, “Essentials”, “Essentials Plus”, and so on.</p>
<p>Each plan, in turn, has four to eight tariff type options: “Flexible Price”, “Time of Use Interval”, “5 Day Time of Use”, “Single Rate”, “Two rate: single rate with controlled load”, “Single Rate Demand Opt-in”, and so on.</p>
<p>That adds up to literally dozens of price plans from just one retailer. Other companies are hardly better. For a customer in inner Sydney, there are more than 350 retail plans to choose from. </p>
<p>All this “choice” gives the appearance of a competitive market, but its effect is the opposite. It give retailers wriggle room to charge more, not less. </p>
<h2>Experiments in choice behaviour</h2>
<p>Many experiments over the past three decades have demonstrated the ubiquity of too much choice leading to consumer paralysis. </p>
<p>One classic experiment was run by psychologists <a href="https://faculty.washington.edu/jdb/345/345%20Articles/Iyengar%20%26%20Lepper%20(2000).pdf">Sheena Iyengar and Mark Lepper</a> in a San Francisco supermarket in 1999. Customers visiting the store were given a chance to sample jams. Half the time they were allowed to taste up to six jams; the other half they could taste up to 24 jams. </p>
<p>Traditional economics says a consumer is much more likely to find a jam they really like with a sample of 24 rather than six. So offering 24 jams should lead to more jam purchases. </p>
<p>Yet exactly the opposite was found. Of the consumers who chose to taste jams, only 3% of those who could sample 24 jams ended up buying jam, whereas 30% (or 10 times more) of those who could sample just six jams ended up buying. </p>
<p>More choices provided, more paralysis.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/BnfQxsu3Dq4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Sheena Iyengar explains the jam problem.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>More recently, in 2012, Iyengar’s Columbia University colleague Eric Johnson and others r<a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0081521">eported on an experiment</a> with much greater consequences. </p>
<p>They asked people to choose health insurance coverage from a set of four or eight options. The options varied on monthly premiums and deductibles. When given four options, 42% of subjects chose the best value option. On average their choices cost about $200 more than the best option on offer.</p>
<p>When given eight options, only 21% chose the best option – no better than simply making a random choice. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/confusopoly-why-companies-are-motivated-to-deliberately-confuse-39563">Confusopoly: Why companies are motivated to deliberately confuse</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Reinforcing psychological biases</h2>
<p>Given the massive number of products and plans available in the energy, banking, insurance, internet and mobile phone sectors, the time and effort needed to choose the best deal leaves us feeling overwhelmed and overloaded. In response, we rely on shortcuts (rules of thumb) to save both time (and our sanity). </p>
<p>But these shortcuts can also cause biases that result in further paralysis, including:</p>
<ul>
<li><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzKix2xWmJI">Present bias</a> – we put much greater weight on the present than the future. Since the cost of making decisions happens in the present (like the time and effort to compare options and switch services) while the benefits happen later (like saving money), we minimise the time we spend making decisions</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDTEKHQUR2s">Status quo bias</a> – we tend to stick with a chosen option or default, even when a much better option may be available</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVNGJpoSuk8">Loss aversion</a> – we place much greater weight on losses and often overestimate the chance of a bad outcome.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>There is considerable evidence pointing to how these biases lead to consumer paralysis in the retail banking and energy sectors. </p>
<p>In 2017, Britain’s energy regulator, Ofgem, ran <a href="https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications-and-updates/results-cheaper-market-offers-letter-trial">a randomised control trial</a> involving more than 130,000 electricity customers. Participants received personalised letters either from Ofgem or their current provider offering substantially better electricity deals. </p>
<p>The result: compared with the control group in which only 1% switched tariffs within the next month, 3.4% of those who received an offer from their electricity provider switched to a better deal. Even when presented with notable savings, more than 96% stuck with the status quo. </p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279479/original/file-20190614-158917-s6who0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279479/original/file-20190614-158917-s6who0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279479/original/file-20190614-158917-s6who0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279479/original/file-20190614-158917-s6who0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279479/original/file-20190614-158917-s6who0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279479/original/file-20190614-158917-s6who0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=557&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279479/original/file-20190614-158917-s6who0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=557&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279479/original/file-20190614-158917-s6who0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=557&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Results of Ofgem’s Cheaper Market Offers Letter (CMOL) trial.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/system/files/docs/2017/11/cmol_report_0.pdf">Ofgem</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>Other <a href="https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/system/files/docs/2017/10/consumer_engagement_survey_2017_report.pdf">Ofgem research</a> shows that among those who have not switched energy plans, 51% consider it a hassle they don’t have time for, and 48% worry that things would go wrong.</p>
<p>Yvette Hartfree and her colleagues at the University of Bristol’s Personal Finance Research Centre have noted similar fears among <a href="https://www.bristol.ac.uk/media-library/sites/geography/pfrc/pfrc1604-personal-current-account-switching-report.pdf">bank customers</a>: “The biggest concern for those considering switching is that something will go wrong at some point in the process of switching.” </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/simpler-account-switching-would-help-keep-our-banks-honest-66264">Simpler account switching would help keep our banks honest</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Taking action</h2>
<p>We should not be surprised that energy companies and others use an avalanche of choice to confuse us. It is a brilliant business strategy: it seems more competitive from a traditional assessment, yet actually reduces competition. </p>
<p>So what can you do? </p>
<p>On your own, you will need to make a conscious effort to overcome paralysis. You need to devote the time to carefully compare offers. </p>
<p>Fortunately, you can find tools that can help, such as the Australian government’s <a href="https://www.energymadeeasy.gov.au/">energy comparison website</a>. However, be wary of commercial “switching services” and websites that provide comparisons. These operations are often being paid by retailers. Their motives are not necessarily to direct you to the best deal.</p>
<p>What can we do collectively? </p>
<p>One option is government action to ensure switching services are trustworthy. At a minimum, there should be guidelines that switching services not take payments from retailers, and only charge you when you actually save money. </p>
<p>Another option is to form “consumer unions”, which can bargain collectively to get members better deals. The potential of community groups to leverage bulk-buying arrangements has demonstrated in other contexts. In Victoria’s Gippsland region, for example local organisations have banded together <a href="http://www.gippybulkbuy.com.au/">to offer discounts</a> on renewable energy technology. </p>
<p>There’s no reason something similar could not be done to overcome the choice problems induced by big energy retailers and the like.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/116078/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert Slonim receives funding from the Australian Research Council for Discovery and Linkage Grants. </span></em></p>Energy companies and other retailers bamboozle us with options to increase their profits. Here’s how the behavioural phenomenon of choice overload works.Robert Slonim, Professor of Economics, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1183802019-06-10T12:55:54Z2019-06-10T12:55:54ZDriverless cars are going to disrupt the airline industry<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/278540/original/file-20190607-52753-p6s5zk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=271%2C102%2C3754%2C1738&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Which would you prefer?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/colorado-springs-june-5-2019-black-1416775535">photo-denver/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As driverless cars <a href="https://www.alphr.com/cars/1001329/driverless-cars-of-the-future-how-far-away-are-we-from-autonomous-cars">become more capable and more common</a>, they will change people’s travel habits not only around their own communities but across much larger distances. Our research has revealed just how much people’s travel preferences could shift, and found a new potential challenge to the airline industry.</p>
<p>Imagine someone who lives in Atlanta and needs to travel to Washington, D.C., for business. This is <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Atlanta,+Georgia/Washington,+D.C.,+DC/">about a 10-hour drive</a>. A flight takes about two hours, assuming no delays. Add to that the drive to the airport, checking in, the security line and waiting at the gate. Upon arrival in D.C., it may take another 30 minutes to pick up any checked bags and find a rental car – and even more time to drive to the specific destination. The average person would estimate a total travel time of <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/roadwarriorvoices/2015/08/21/when-is-it-faster-to-drive-than-fly/83201678/">four to five fours</a>. Most people would choose to fly instead of driving themselves.</p>
<p>However, if they could <a href="https://axleaddict.com/safety/Advantages-and-Disadvantages-of-Driverless-Cars">have a fully driverless car</a> take them there, the choice changes. Passengers could eat, drink, work and sleep during the 10-hour drive. They could leave whenever they want, and pack whatever they want – including liquids and pocketknives – with no searches or scans. When they get to D.C., they wouldn’t have to find a rental car and navigate to the actual place they’re going. </p>
<p>Which would you choose? Now imagine the self-driving car has a reclining seat with actual legroom, or even a bed. It’s more than a little tempting.</p>
<h2>What do consumers say?</h2>
<p>As <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ov4kMJoAAAAJ&hl=en">experts</a> in <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=6T1fSdgAAAAJ">public opinion research</a>, we know that the American public <a href="https://landlopers.com/2017/01/03/long-haul-flights">loves how quickly flights can cover large distances</a>, but <a href="https://nypost.com/2017/06/15/this-is-what-people-hate-the-most-about-flying/">hates the security checks, long lines, delays, risk of losing baggage</a> and overall hassle of the flying experience. </p>
<p>We also know that at the moment, most people are reluctant to ride in driverless vehicles – <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci7030034">including school buses</a> and <a href="https://www.inverse.com/article/28781-self-driving-ambulances-study-people-scared">even ambulances</a> that could speed their treatment in an emergency. However, our data also shows that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2018.04.002">as people learn about the benefits of driverless cars</a>, they become more accepting of the new technology. Over time, people will feel comfortable using autonomous cars (and ambulances), just like they adjusted to riding in the first automobiles.</p>
<p>A future with driverless cars means people will have more options to avoid driving on their own, beyond trains and buses. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.15394/ijaaa.2018.1222">In our study</a>, we showed people trips of different lengths and asked them to choose whether they would rather drive themselves, take a flight or ride in a self-driving car. In general, the data indicated that people always preferred driverless vehicles over manual driving. Taking a driverless car <a href="https://doi.org/10.15394/ijaaa.2018.1222">got even more attractive</a> if people were told that after flying, they would need a rental car in their destination city. </p>
<p>On short trips, with a five-hour drive, two-thirds of people would rather drive themselves. That didn’t change much when they were offered a self-driving car, unless they were told they would need a car in their destination city. Then nearly three-quarters of people preferred a self-driving car to flying. </p>
<p>As trips got longer, people were increasingly likely to prefer flying, but self-driving cars were still a compelling option. On the longest trips we asked about, with a 45-hour drive, only about one in 10 people preferred driving themselves – but that changed to one in six when the option was to have a car drive itself. </p>
<p><iframe id="npSk7" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/npSk7/4/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>In follow-up work, we’re looking at how the costs of each transportation method might affect consumers’ choices – including whether they’re traveling alone or in a group with friends or family members.</p>
<h2>How will this affect the airlines?</h2>
<p>Losing even one in 10 customers would substantially reduce airlines’ revenue. They <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travel-truths/what-airlines-really-spend-your-airfare-money-on/">don’t make much money</a> on each flight as it is; less income would likely cause them to shrink their service, flying fewer routes less frequently.</p>
<p>The problem wouldn’t just be customers who chose not to fly. Some passengers might split trips between self-driving cars and airplanes, which would further reduce airlines’ revenue. For instance, a person in Savannah, Georgia, who wants to go to London could choose to <a href="https://science.howstuffworks.com/transport/flight/modern/airline3.htm">change planes in Atlanta</a> – or take a self-driving car to the Atlanta airport, and skip the layover.</p>
<p>These changes could substantially change the aviation industry, with airlines ordering fewer airplanes from manufacturers, airports seeing fewer daily flights and lower revenue from parking lots, and even airport hotels hosting fewer guests. The future of driverless cars is appealing to consumers – which means the future of commercial flight is in danger.</p>
<p>[ <em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/118380/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen Rice has received funding from the Federal Aviation Administration and Department of Transportation. The opinions in this article are solely the opinions of the authors.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Scott R. Winter has received funding from the Federal Aviation Administration and Department of Transportation. The opinions in this article are solely the opinions of the authors.</span></em></p>Skipping the hassle of flying – and the different headache of driving – gives self-driving cars a leg up when people are choosing how to travel.Stephen Rice, Professor of Human Factors, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical UniversityScott Winter, Assistant Professor of Graduate Studies, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1039042018-10-11T04:04:57Z2018-10-11T04:04:57ZPerfect information: the customer reviews most likely to influence purchasing decisions<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239662/original/file-20181008-72117-n1spz9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Consumer reviews have changed many an industry.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Whether you are booking a hotel room, choosing a restaurant, deciding on what movie to see or buying any number of things, it is likely you have read online reviews before making your decision. </p>
<p>What makes a consumer review persuasive, though? No matter how short, it tells a story in much the same way as a novel does. Yet, like a journalism report, it starts with its takeaway rather than saving that to the end. </p>
<p>These are among the key findings of research my colleagues and I have done into what gives consumer reviews their power to influence consumer choices.</p>
<p>In view of the influence reviews have, there is considerable interest among marketers, social media influencers and software developers in knowing the qualities that make them compelling and persuasive. So it’s smart for you as a consumer to understand them too. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/spot-the-fake-shoppers-get-help-with-online-reviews-21161">Spot the fake: shoppers get help with online reviews</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucy067">recent article</a> in the Journal of Consumer Research, my colleagues Jennifer Escalas, Stephan Ludwig, Ellis van den Hende and I argue that persuasiveness lies in the experience of “transportation”. The level of this transportation depends on the degree and power of narrative offered. </p>
<p>Our theory was that the same elements that grip the reader of a novel might also exist in reviews, because reviews are essentially short stories too. To test that theory, we developed a new computerised technique for measuring a text’s degree of “narrativity”. We then conducted three studies.</p>
<h2>Showing who, where, and when</h2>
<p>In the first, we analysed almost 200,000 reviews from the “things to do in Las Vegas” category on the travel-related review site TripAdvisor. Our computerised technique showed the relationship between combinations of words used and the helpfulness of reviews, as measured by reader ratings.</p>
<p>We found the more a review offered insight into the writer’s state of mind, the greater its helpfulness. Take, for example, this extract from a review of Kà, a circus show in Las Vegas: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>There was a lot of action. That I love in this show. I would totally go see it again.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Conveying a sense of place and a sequence of events were also elements that contributed to greater helpfulness. For example, this is a review of the musical Vegas! The Show:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The first half seemed to drag on until the bird trainer and his buddies came on. Because they were hilarious and their performance seemed to add life to the show and energise the crowd. The second half of the show was a lot of fun!</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Emotional curves, not linear narratives</h2>
<p>We also used our computerised technique to tally how many positive and negative words each review contained and where they featured. This analysis tested the effect of the emotional thread in the stories.</p>
<p>Reviews that exhibited emotional curves in their story line, moving from positive to negative and back for example, were rated as more helpful than those that provided a linear narrative. An example is the following review of Mystery Adventures, a live action role-playing game organised in Las Vegas:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>This is definitely an unusual thing to do in Las Vegas, but can be a wonderful change of pace. Max seemed nervous at first with lots of ‘uhhh’s and ummmms, but warmed up quickly. Very exciting and worth the effort we put into it.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As mentioned above, reviews starting with their takeaway, or most dramatic revelation, tended to be more helpful too. The following opening of a Graceland Wedding Chapel review is an example:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I was so upset, I did not get married at Graceland Chapel! On our wedding night, there we were….</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In the second study, panellists on Amazon Mechanical Turk, a crowdsourcing platform, were asked to rate the transportation and helpfulness of a selection of reviews. In the third study, we asked 156 students to read reviews about a trip to Agra, India. As before, the participants were asked to rate how transporting and helpful the reviews were, as well as how much they wanted to travel to Agra after reading them. </p>
<p>We confirmed in those two studies that the more narrative elements were present, the more the reviews were regarded as captivating and persuasive. We concluded that the most persuasive reviews tell who did what, where, when and why, and have their emotional transitions and climaxes at the beginning.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-split-the-good-from-the-bad-in-online-reviews-and-ratings-74986">How to split the good from the bad in online reviews and ratings</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Implications for you</h2>
<p>Our results show that what story is being told as well as how it is being transferred affect you. If you are aware of this influence, you can make more conscious choices. </p>
<p>When reading online reviews, you should consider what the reviewers’ state of mind was, where and when their experience took place, how emotions flow across the review, and where the climax is. In that way, you consider who is writing the texts and what their helpfulness really is.</p>
<p>Reading critically is a practice we should all adopt, no matter the publication. Narrative qualities are among the hardest ones to fake – so looking out for them minimises the chance that fake reviews sway your opinion.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/from-dating-profiles-to-brexit-how-to-spot-an-online-lie-61124">From dating profiles to Brexit – how to spot an online lie</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/103904/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The Marketing Science Institute financially supported part of this work through research grant 4000118.</span></em></p>Reviews are essentially short stories. The best use the same elements that make a novel gripping.Tom van Laer, Reader (Associate Professor) of Marketing, City, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/867172017-12-22T14:56:34Z2017-12-22T14:56:34ZBack in time for Christmas dinner: the modern desire for a bygone age<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/199918/original/file-20171219-27557-18z7a01.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Christmas dinner with all the trimmings.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/christmas-family-dinner-table-concept-513248413?src=6DYYzw1w6I98VS5kDiFCRg-1-0">Shutterstock/rawpixel.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Nostalgia is now a key strategic consideration for business and retail. The marketisation of our fondness for a remembered past has stimulated the endless reboots of <a href="https://daily.jstor.org/is-don-quixote-to-blame-for-modern-movie-reboots/">1980s movie classics</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/teletubbies-galore-do-we-need-remakes-of-classic-childrens-tv-39973">children’s television series</a>, the remarketing of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/sep/28/nintendo-classic-mini-snes-review-fun-sized-reboot-of-greatest-ever-console-mario-yoshi-zelda">retro videogames</a> and even the re-appreciation of <a href="http://www.adnews.com.au/news/myer-gets-nostalgic-with-ads-celebrating-100-years">vintage commercials</a>. </p>
<p>Beyond providing us with emotional access to objects and things from our previous and personal “lived” experiences, there are also aspects of today’s “retro revolution” that appeal to imagined experiences of a more distant past. This has been particularly evident in our desires to find inspiration when it comes to eating. </p>
<p>The BBC’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/jan/25/further-back-in-time-for-dinner-review-top-middle-class-tv-time-travel-with-giles-coren-and-a-cows-brain">Back in Time for Dinner</a> and <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06sq9m7">Back in Time for Christmas</a> are examples of consumer curiosity to seek out, understand and rediscover forgotten ways of eating and drinking.</p>
<p>As we approach Christmas, it seems that our insatiable curiosity – and desire – for more real, more authentic, and more fun than even that which we are personally familiar with might mean looking past the Christmas dinner of our own memories to that of the ancestral memory instead.</p>
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</figure>
<h2>Christmas dinner as the “real thing”</h2>
<p>For <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/christmas-day-food-favourite-uk-a7410081.html">many</a>, the contemporary British Christmas dinner conjures up images of turkey, stuffing, roast potatoes, gravy, pigs in blankets, sprouts, pudding and, of course, the copious festive <a href="https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/buying-and-supplying/fmcg-prices-and-promotions/festive-choc-boxes-see-price-increases-and-shrinkflation/560468.article">tubs of chocolates</a>. The instantly recognisable blend of features of the Christmas dinner are so essential to the holiday experience that they have been appropriated by various businesses on the high street – whether it is Greggs’ Festive Bakes, Subway’s Festive Feast Sub or Pret A Manger’s Christmas Lunch sandwiches. </p>
<p>The very special, moreish (and mass marketed) nature of the contemporary “taste of Christmas” echoes the work of psychoanalytic philosopher Slavoj Žižek on the dynamics of “<a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=EujcNVAlcw4C&oi=fnd&pg=PR9&dq=zizek+AND+%22surplus-enjoyment%22+AND+desire&ots=9cPfJozyOr&sig=GcYoYMajFMSs4iie9w_iOBx3H8k#v=onepage&q=consumerism&f=false">surplus-enjoyment</a>” and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vydwrn_TQow">insatiable, bottomless desire</a>.
It is conceivable that Christmas dinner has become for many, what Žižek might call, “<a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=TQKg6bV8QksC&oi=fnd&pg=PA1&dq=zizek+the+ticklish+subject&ots=VuQA79Wysr&sig=KueZXRm4gEp1P9JZF04MUhAvYsE#v=onepage&q=%22the%20real%20thing%22&f=false">the Real Thing</a>”. </p>
<p>It is not so much that the taste of Christmas dinner has become iconic, or that the food itself satisfies us like no other. It is what Christmas dinner represents – happiness, togetherness, material abundance. These are the “real” things which we can never have too much of and we are forever trying to fill ourselves up with.</p>
<p>As a consequence, people often find themselves always wanting more over the festive period. Ultimately, this insatiability culminates in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/size-is-everything-at-christmas-and-your-oven-is-no-exception-35689">copiousness and lavishness</a> of the Christmas Day feast. Though this often is not the end, thanks to the leftovers. And we are destined to recreate the feast without fail every year afterwards. Some might even <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnczB6LXkqE">wish that it could be Christmas every day</a>, as it were.</p>
<p>The notion of a <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=UznZ_J58LjQC&pg=PA22&lpg=PA22&dq=zizek+%22pure+surplus+of+enjoyment%22&source=bl&ots=aDyyhhSqGH&sig=3kBMWvvgziRZ1GZQVh1wmFxHePg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjr1oqNpPXXAhUJaFAKHSj2CE8Q6AEIVDAM#v=onepage&q=zizek%20%22pure%20surplus%20of%20enjoyment%22&f=false">pure surplus of enjoyment</a> surrounding Christmas dinner could mean that enjoyment of it is premised on a ceaseless quest to realise and quench abstract desires. While we might have everything and more right now for a great Christmas dinner, that is still never quite good enough.</p>
<h2>Christmas feasting through the ages</h2>
<p>The trappings of the modern Christmas dinner originate in Victorian England, between the birth of urban industrialisation and modern consumer culture. The prototype of what we eat now is captured in representations of the Cratchit family dinner in the Dickens classic, <a href="https://www.charlesdickensinfo.com/christmas-carol/">A Christmas Carol</a>. Although Dickens did not himself conceive of what would become the modern Christmas dinner, authors such as <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/gfc.2004.4.4.17">Cathy Kaufman</a> make it clear that “his story was a road map for middle and working-class pleasures at the precise moment when both meal structures and the nature of Christmas celebrations were changing.”</p>
<p>The changes catalysed by the Victorians are not just seen in their foods of choice but also in accompaniments they introduced to the dinner table (the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-victorians-gave-us-the-christmas-cracker-but-are-also-to-blame-for-the-terrible-jokes-inside-70745">Christmas cracker</a>,for example). They constructed Christmas dinner as a way of signifying conviviality, playfulness and community – a way of staging desire. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/199919/original/file-20171219-4973-5benyj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/199919/original/file-20171219-4973-5benyj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199919/original/file-20171219-4973-5benyj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199919/original/file-20171219-4973-5benyj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199919/original/file-20171219-4973-5benyj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199919/original/file-20171219-4973-5benyj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199919/original/file-20171219-4973-5benyj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Christmas cracker.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/couple-pulling-cracker-room-decorated-christmas-534309616?src=L4vVCIJIZwF7fLowMonXyA-1-0">Shutterstock/MonkeyBusinessImage</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Before Victorian times, feasting at Christmas served a more raucous and crude means of breaking up the hardship and scarcity of the cold winter months. In the late Middle Ages and Tudor England for example, the feasting during Christmas time may have often been organised less elaborately around various pies, whatever game birds were in availability, or the meat of livestock that could not overwinter and needed to be culled. There may also have been a great divide between what the rich and the poor ate during <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-would-you-have-eaten-for-christmas-in-medieval-times-35234">Yuletide Feasting</a>. </p>
<h2>A new old desire</h2>
<p>To tap into consumers’ insatiable desire for more fun, more authentic and more real festive experiences <a href="https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/corfe-castle/features/a-magical-tudor-christmas-at-corfe-castle">The National Trust</a> has promoted the opportunity to experience a historic Christmas where visitors can enjoy a period-specific “Tudor Christmas feast beside a roaring log fire”.</p>
<p>Various <a href="http://www.juliacharleseventmanagement.co.uk/content/victorianchristmasthemedeventproductions">businesses</a> provide full-service catering based on authentic Victorian-themed food, tea carts and props – and a host of restaurants now offer “Victorian Christmas” menus and themed dining experiences. Elsewhere, the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/victorianchristmas/activities.shtml#fooddrink">BBC</a> and <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/food-and-drink/features/how-to-cook-a-victorian-christmas-feast/">The Telegraph</a> each provide DIY guides “to making your very own Victorian Christmas”. </p>
<p>The taste of modern Christmas as we know it now certainly fills us up. But ultimately it never fully satisfies consumer desire. We forever want more and consumers might slowly be realising that this little bit extra might not be available to them in the present but rather lies buried in the past ready for excavation.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/86717/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Cronin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Why is there so much consumer interest in recreating Christmas dinners from the past?James Cronin, Lecturer in Marketing and Consumer Behaviour, Lancaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/845842017-09-28T19:05:22Z2017-09-28T19:05:22ZGoogling for a new dentist or therapist? Here’s how to look past the glowing testimonials<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187498/original/file-20170926-32444-njv05f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">We use reviews and online testimonials when downloading an app or shopping on eBay. So, why not when choosing a new dentist?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/success?src=JdF7vJ43nvBdY4y81UK5hA-1-68">from www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>If you’ve ever <a href="http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/182198">searched online</a> for a new dentist or other health professional, you’re certain to find websites with positive testimonials. Then there are the impressive “before and after” photos.</p>
<p>But <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/adj.12571/full">our recently published research</a> shows not all health professionals are playing by the rules when they market themselves to the public.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/dr-google-probably-isnt-the-worst-place-to-get-your-health-advice-73835">Dr Google probably isn't the worst place to get your health advice</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<p>Our study of dentists shows almost three-quarters were illegally using testimonials on social media to market their practice and almost one in five were using pictures or text likely to create unrealistic expectations of the treatment.</p>
<p>So what are health professionals allowed to claim about the service they provide? And what advice should you rely on?</p>
<h2>What type of health professional are you looking for?</h2>
<p>How health professionals are allowed to market themselves depends mainly on what type of service they provide. The key is whether the practitioner is providing what’s known as a <a href="https://www.ahpra.gov.au/Publications/Advertising-resources/Legislation-guidelines.aspx">regulated health service</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.ahpra.gov.au/National-Boards.aspx">These include</a>: doctors, dentists, pharmacists, psychologists, nurses and midwives, chiropractors, osteopaths, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, optometrists, podiatrists, practitioners of Chinese medicine, radiographers and sonographers, and people who provide specialist health services to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.</p>
<p>So, if you’re looking for one of these, the following advertising <a href="http://www.ahpra.gov.au/About-AHPRA/What-We-Do/Legislation.aspx">is illegal</a>:</p>
<ul>
<li>false, misleading or deceptive advertising or advertising that’s likely to be misleading or deceptive</li>
<li>advertising that offers a gift, discount or other inducements, unless the advertisement also states the terms and conditions of the offer</li>
<li>using testimonials or reported testimonials</li>
<li>advertising that creates an unreasonable expectation of beneficial treatment, and</li>
<li>advertising that directly or indirectly encourages the indiscriminate or unnecessary use of regulated health services.</li>
</ul>
<p>These rules apply to all forms of advertising across different media, including social media.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187499/original/file-20170926-12134-1cpmh4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187499/original/file-20170926-12134-1cpmh4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187499/original/file-20170926-12134-1cpmh4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187499/original/file-20170926-12134-1cpmh4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187499/original/file-20170926-12134-1cpmh4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187499/original/file-20170926-12134-1cpmh4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187499/original/file-20170926-12134-1cpmh4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187499/original/file-20170926-12134-1cpmh4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Speech pathologists are allowed to include testimonials and reviews to promote themselves, but doctors and pharmacists aren’t.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/success?src=JdF7vJ43nvBdY4y81UK5hA-1-68">from www.shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But there are a whole range of health professionals who aren’t counted as providing a regulated health service. These include optical dispensers, speech and language pathologists, and massage therapists.</p>
<p>So, if you read great testimonials about these, while persuasive, they’re unlikely to be illegal under health-care law. However, they would still be bound by <a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/consumers/misleading-claims-advertising/false-or-misleading-claims">Australian Consumer Law</a>, which prevents misleading or deceptive advertising.</p>
<h2>How about if I leave an online review?</h2>
<p>While the law prohibits providers of a regulated health service from providing testimonials, there’s nothing stopping you from leaving a review on Google or on your own social media page.</p>
<p>But if you leave a review on a doctor or dentist’s practice page or social media account, it’s the health professional who will be breaching the rules; the <a href="https://www.ahpra.gov.au/">regulator</a> expects health professionals to manage the content of their pages.</p>
<p>You would think that most testimonial sections on social media would be disabled, however, this isn’t what our <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/adj.12571/full">research showed</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/yes-your-doctor-might-google-you-74746">Yes, your doctor might Google you</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>For bad reviews, you could potentially be sued for <a href="http://www.lawhandbook.org.au/11_02_01_what_is_defamation/">defamation</a> if your post harms the health professional’s reputation. This is an entirely separate section of law, with many caveats, so please take care. A recent case involved a surgeon who <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/sydney-surgeon-munjed-al-muderis-awarded-480k-over-online-defamation-by-patient-20170608-gwn17a.html">successfully sued a patient for A$480,000</a> after he made defamatory claims online.</p>
<h2>So, what’s the big deal?</h2>
<p>Testimonials and reviews are very common in other aspects of our daily lives. Just think about the last time you downloaded an app, used eBay or booked a holiday online. But what makes health-care so special?</p>
<p>Testimonials and reviews can potentially mislead. For instance, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27279455">one study</a> that looked at YouTube testimonials about dental implants found many testimonials overplayed the positives (better looking and improved function) and downplayed the negatives of treatment (pain relief needed, a temporary solution).</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-split-the-good-from-the-bad-in-online-reviews-and-ratings-74986">How to split the good from the bad in online reviews and ratings</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Testimonials and reviews might not even be true. Google requires no proof you have visited a health professional before you leave a non-verified review. And a quick search on Google itself reveals many businesses offering to sell positive Google reviews.</p>
<p>Then there are the potentially serious health consequences of choosing the wrong health professional (or the wrong therapy) after reading testimonials and reviews. For instance, there’s nothing to prevent medical graduates with little or no postgraduate training <a href="http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/cosmetic-surgery-rogue-operators-health-minister-calls-for-investigation/news-story/a5297252f77fd4936cfe358b7140c663">using the title “cosmetic surgeon”</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/call-yourself-a-cosmetic-surgeon-new-guidelines-fix-only-half-the-problem-59078">Call yourself a cosmetic surgeon? New guidelines fix only half the problem</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Misleading claims or titles might also affect your ability to consent to treatment; if you don’t have the right information, <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/adj.12428/full">how can you make an informed decision</a>?</p>
<h2>Where does this leave me?</h2>
<p>There is no one-stop resource for patients to access health advertising that is completely free from bias. So, take claims relating to health professionals with a pinch of salt, including testimonials.</p>
<p>While some people think advertising restrictions stifle public discussion, they’re in place to protect you.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Update: this article originally stated acupuncturists aren’t counted as providing a regulated health service.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/84584/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alexander Holden does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Many of the online testimonials you might read for dentists and other health professional can not only mislead, they can be illegal.Alexander Holden, Lecturer in Dental Ethics, Law and Professionalism, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/749862017-04-04T19:20:15Z2017-04-04T19:20:15ZHow to split the good from the bad in online reviews and ratings<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/163773/original/image-20170404-21979-6kl4l4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Basing purchasing decisions solely on online product reviews may be unwise. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A lot of consumers, when searching online for something to buy, will take a look at an online review or rating for a product. It seems like a great way to get an unfiltered view on quality but <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1561/107.00000002">research indicates</a> most online reviews are too simple and may misguide consumers.</p>
<p>According to <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11002-012-9205-2">one United States survey</a>, 78.5% of American consumers looked for information online about a product or service, and 34% had posted an online review. A <a href="http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/press-room/2012/nielsen-global-consumers-trust-in-earned-advertising-grows.html">global Nielsen survey</a> found 70% of consumers trust online product reviews and use them in making decisions. </p>
<p>As a result, the average user rating of products has become a <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1509/jmr.14.0380">significant factor in driving sales</a> across many product categories and industries. The proliferation of online reviews from many consumers sounds like a <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1561/107.00000001">positive development for consumer welfare</a> but some research shows otherwise. </p>
<h2>User ratings and product quality</h2>
<p>Consumers use online user ratings because they assume these provide a good indication of product or service quality. For example, you would expect a laptop with an average rating of four out of five stars to be objectively better than a laptop with an average rating of three out of five stars, 100% of the time. </p>
<p>In order to test this assumption, one <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucv047">researcher team</a> put together an impressive dataset comprising of 344,157 Amazon.com ratings for 1,272 products, in 120 product categories. For each product, they obtained objective quality scores from the website <a href="http://www.consumerreports.org">Consumer Reports</a>. They also collected data on prices, brand image measures, and two independent sources of resale values in the market for second hand or used goods. </p>
<p>The researchers found that average user ratings correlated poorly with the scores from Consumer Reports. For example, when the difference in average user rating between pairs of products was larger than one star, the item with the higher user rating was rated more favourably by Consumer Reports only about two-thirds of the time. </p>
<p>In other words, if you were comparing a laptop with an average rating of four out of five stars, with another laptop with an average rating of three out of five stars, the first laptop would only be objectively better 65% (not 100%) of the time. This is a far cry from a sure difference in quality. Moreover, the average user ratings did not predict resale value in the used-product marketplace.</p>
<h2>The reasons online ratings don’t reflect the real thing</h2>
<p>There are several reasons why average user ratings may not predict objective quality measures. User reviews may include a broader range of criteria than those Consumer Reports does, such as subjective aspects of the use experience (like aesthetics, popularity, emotional benefits). </p>
<p>Many reviews are also based on small samples. As any statistics teacher will tell you, all things being equal, the average user rating should be more informative as sample size increases relative to variability. Indeed, in the <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucv047">online rating study</a>, the correlation between average user rating and Consumer Reports scores was higher when the sample size was large. Unfortunately, average user ratings are often based on <a href="http://jmcauley.ucsd.edu/data/amazon/">small samples and high variability</a>.</p>
<p>Online reviews are based on a biased subset of those who actually purchased the product. In general, reviews are left by those that “brag” or “moan” about their product experience, often resulting in a <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/1134707.1134743">two mode distribution of ratings</a>.</p>
<p>This is where the average does not give a good indication of the true population average. For example, in one comprehensive dataset for a large private label retailer, the percentage of buyers who left a review was just <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1509/jmr.13.0209">1.5%</a>. This means that 98.5% of the people eligible to leave a review chose not to do so. </p>
<p>Many groups also now actively seek to manipulate average ratings. This can be done in the form of fake reviews. </p>
<p>For <a href="https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.104.8.2421">example</a>, businesses (or their agents) may post fictitious favourable reviews for their own products and/or post fictitious negative reviews for the products of their competitors. <a href="http://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/abs/10.1287/mnsc.2015.2304">According to one study</a>, roughly 16% of restaurant reviews on the website Yelp were suspicious or fake. </p>
<p>Websites like Yelp.com and Amazon.com try to mitigate such ingenuity. For example, one of the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Ivanka-Trump-Womens-Kayden4-Dress/dp/B00XM98CBU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1486150760&sr=8-1&keywords=ivanka+trump">Ivanka Trump collection’s shoes</a> has an average rating of four and a half out of five stars despite hundreds of (presumably fake) one-star reviews. </p>
<h2>What you can actually tell from online reviews</h2>
<p>There is a way to use the information from reviews and ratings despite all of these potential pitfalls. First, look for products with a high average user rating, many reviews, and not a lot of variance in the rating scores. Beware placing too much faith in average ratings that are based on few reviews and with high variance in the ratings. </p>
<p>You can also consider online reviews in light of additional sources that provide objective product evaluations, from technical experts. Sources of this kind of information include <a href="http://www.consumerreports.org">Consumer Reports</a>, <a href="http://www.choice.com.au">Choice</a>, <a href="http://www.consumersunion.org">Consumers Union</a>, <a href="http://www.which.co.uk">Which?</a> and <a href="http://www.cnet.com">CNET</a>.</p>
<p>Where possible, you can consider employing technology designed to help you navigate the bias in online reviews. Examples include <a href="http://fakespot.com/">Fakespot</a> and <a href="https://reviewmeta.com">ReviewMeta</a>. For example, ReviewMeta scans all reviews from a product’s online listing page, and then provides an adjusted average rating. This adjusted rating accounts for all sorts of suspicious activities such as a high proportion of reviews from users with unverified purchases. </p>
<p>So, the next time you’re evaluating products online, feel free to start with the average user rating, but be wary of making your final judgement based only on this cue.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/74986/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adrian R. Camilleri does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Online ratings and reviews may seem like a good way to see what other consumers think of a product but they can be to simplistic and misleading, research shows.Adrian R. Camilleri, Lecturer in Marketing, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/724092017-02-27T01:29:27Z2017-02-27T01:29:27ZSeven steps to help you choose the right home care provider<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/156875/original/image-20170215-19627-k1j9y1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Some people will find it harder than others to choose a new home care service provider to help with gardening or getting out and about.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/confirm/443284864?src=xv_zJ5rhVn-fQ7NydgLVAQ-2-2&size=medium_jpg">from www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Older people needing extra help to live at home, whether that’s help with bathing, gardening, transport or physiotherapy, now have greater choice when it comes to the types of subsidised government care they receive.</p>
<p>From today they can change the service provider that provides their <a href="https://www.myagedcare.gov.au/help-home/home-care-packages">home care package</a>, meaning they can choose a provider that better suits their needs, has better customer service, or is better value.</p>
<p>While added choice puts people (and their families) in a stronger position to negotiate with the current provider, not everyone can easily exercise this choice.</p>
<p>So how do people choose the right package for them or a family member? And what are the barriers to getting the right services?</p>
<h2>What is a home care package?</h2>
<p>A home care package is a tailored suite of services, subsidised to a set amount by federal funding, to help older people live in the community. </p>
<p>The federal government funds a set number of home care packages. In 2016 there were <a href="https://agedcare.health.gov.au/sites/g/files/net1426/f/documents/12_2016/2015-16_report-on-the-operation-of-the-aged-care-act-1997.pdf">almost 80,000 packages funded at a cost of A$1.49 billion</a>.</p>
<p>Home care packages are consumer directed. This means people choose the services that make up their package rather than being told what services they are going to be given. Some people may prioritise having a clean home or taking their medication, others want help to exercise and socialise. Some may have special language or cultural needs.</p>
<p>Consumer direction means much more than just choosing from a list of services; people can ask for services not on the list, as long as they would help them live independently, safely and well.</p>
<p>Before now, the government allocated home care packages to service providers. Once signed up, it was difficult to change providers if the person moved or if the provider wasn’t meeting their needs (such as not having staff that spoke their language) because most providers’ packages were filled and had waiting lists.</p>
<h2>What changes?</h2>
<p>From today, after approval by the <a href="http://www.myagedcare.gov.au/eligibility-and-assessment/acat-assessments">Aged Care Assessment Team</a>, people are placed on a centralised waiting list for the next available package. We don’t know how long the wait will be, but in the past, waiting times for some places <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ajag.12155/full">were over a year</a>, particularly for people needing <a href="http://www.australianageingagenda.com.au/2016/12/15/mix-cost-packages-delaying-access-home-care-say-stakeholders/">higher levels of care</a>.</p>
<p>Newly approved applicants then choose a service provider from the outset, while those already with a service provider can change providers.</p>
<h2>How to choose?</h2>
<p>So, how do you choose a new provider? Here are seven points to consider when making the switch.</p>
<p><strong>1. Beware exit fees</strong></p>
<p>Check your existing home care agreement so you understand any exit fees your current provider may charge.</p>
<p><strong>2. List what you need</strong></p>
<p>List the things you are looking for in your new service. These may relate to staff (gender, language, culture, consistency), availability (day, weekend or evening service), or range of service provided (physiotherapy, occupational therapy, gardening). Some providers provide certain services more flexibly and cheaply than others.</p>
<p><strong>3. Find out what’s available nearby</strong></p>
<p>Identify alternative providers in your area by calling myagedcare on 1800 200 422 or by using the <a href="https://www.myagedcare.gov.au/service-finder?tab=home-care-package-providers">improved search function</a> on its website.</p>
<p><strong>4. Do your homework</strong></p>
<p>When interviewing and comparing providers, ask about:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>fees: how much the provider charges for administration and case management fees (these <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-09-29/complaints-over-fees-after-in-home-aged-care-changes/6802312">can vary widely</a> from 15-45%); the hourly rates for cleaning, personal care, allied health visits etc; average percentage of government subsidy available for clients to spend; ask for an example of a monthly statement to see how clear it is and how it shows accrual of unspent funds</p></li>
<li><p>staff: whether service providers employ their own staff or use agency staff; the level of training of their care coordinators (some have university degrees, others might have minimal training); the level of training of their care staff (some require certificate III or certificate IV, others might have speciality training in dementia)</p></li>
<li><p>communication and relationships: how often care coordinators visit and speak with clients; how regularly care plans are reviewed; how service providers ensure you will get consistent care workers.</p></li>
</ul>
<p><strong>5. Negotiate, negotiate</strong></p>
<p>When you’ve chosen a new provider, or if you’re going to stay with your existing provider, negotiate a home care agreement. You can also negotiate your daily fee contribution (some providers charge less than the maximum allowable amount). </p>
<p>Decide what you will use your package for and what you may pay for privately. For instance, it’s often cheaper to pay for cleaning and gardening privately.</p>
<p><strong>6. Set a date to switch</strong></p>
<p>Agree on a date to switch to your new provider and notify your old provider the date from which you will no longer be using its services. Make sure your current provider tells you how much unspent home care you have, and make sure this is transferred to your new care provider.</p>
<p><strong>7. Use your referral code</strong></p>
<p>Give a referral code to your new provider. This is on a letter sent to you by the Department of Health at the end of 2016. Your new provider needs this code to make sure the subsidy is paid to them; you can’t switch providers without this. If you don’t know your referral code, call myagedcare on 1800 200 422.</p>
<h2>Yes, the system is confusing</h2>
<p>The system is confusing. Apart from <a href="https://homecaretoday.org.au/home-care-package-basics">one useful website</a>, there is <a href="http://www.australianageingagenda.com.au/2017/01/25/lack-of-information-still-hampering-choice-for-older-people-in-aged-care-seniors-tell-review/">not much consumer-friendly information</a> about the packages. This <a href="https://theconversation.com/older-citizens-need-information-to-be-good-aged-care-customers-15963">makes it difficult</a> to make good choices. </p>
<p>This compounds the difficulty for older people, who tend to <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3799963/">seek out less information and take longer to process that information</a> when making complex decisions.</p>
<p>Added to the confusion is that not all home care providers will be ready for this change. </p>
<p>Some providers are more consumer-focused than others; some have been <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ajag.12222/abstract">having trouble</a> shifting from the traditional “list of services” model to a more individualised, flexible and innovative approach.</p>
<p>They will also not have had to sell their services directly to consumers before. They might not have the information you want easily available online, like their fees. They may have also not had to administer stopping a client or starting a new one before. So, expect teething issues.</p>
<h2>Particular challenges</h2>
<p>Some groups will find it particularly difficult to exercise this choice.</p>
<p>People from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds have been able to use the government’s <a href="https://www.tisnational.gov.au/">translating and interpreting service</a> to set up their home care agreement, care plan and budget, as well as to discuss their budget each month. But translating and interpreting costs during care delivery are paid for from their package. Under the new scheme, it is not clear who will bear the costs associated with investigating and negotiating a new service.</p>
<p>People living in remote areas may also have fewer choices of a service provider. </p>
<p>People with dementia who are no longer able to make complex decisions often need a family member or friend to advocate their needs.</p>
<p>Giving consumers choice is meant to create market forces that drive innovation and enhance service quality. However, until older people become aware that they have choice, are given information to help make choices, and start acting on their choices, we might not see much change in the standard of home care.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/72409/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lee-Fay Low has collaborated with with home care providers including The Whiddon Group, Australian Nursing Home Foundation, Catholic Healthcare, the Multicultural Health Communication Service, HammondCare and Baptist Community Services. She receives funding from the NHMRC and Department of Health.</span></em></p>Older Australians needing extra help at home with bathing or gardening can now choose who provides that service. So what do you need to know before choosing a new service for yourself or a family member?Lee-Fay Low, Associate Professor in Ageing and Health, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/717992017-02-22T03:02:56Z2017-02-22T03:02:56ZHow ‘evolving’ technology leads to fewer choices and creates mountains of waste<p>Let me ask you a question. Are you periodically forced to buy a new laptop because the technology – hardware or software – in your current laptop is no longer supported even though it’s fully functional? </p>
<p>The Microsoft Windows operating system is estimated to power <a href="https://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=10&qpcustomd=0">about 90% of world’s personal computers today</a>. Newer versions of Windows <a href="http://www.thewindowsclub.com/history-of-windows">appear every couple of years</a> or so. Once that happens, many applications, such as your favourite web browser, rush to support the new version. Over a few years, these applications move away from supporting older versions to the same extent as the new one. </p>
<p>Google Chrome is a case in point. When it’s running on Windows Vista (a much older Windows operating system) on my laptop, it no longer receives updates from Google — that <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2015/11/10/google-will-stop-supporting-chrome-for-windows-xp-vista-and-older-versions-of-os-x-by-april-2016/">support has been removed</a>. Microsoft has itself stopped support for Windows Vista.</p>
<p>Another example: I have found it very difficult to find an external hard drive – the device you use to back up your data, photographs of family and friends and songs – that works with my fully functional eight-year-old Windows Vista-based laptop. </p>
<p>Almost all easily available external hard disks now support some of the more recent versions of Windows. So, how can consumers like me get the required hard disk? The answer is that they probably can’t.</p>
<h2>Product lifespan</h2>
<p>Companies design products with an expected lifespan, and they plan technical support and product warranty accordingly. A good rule of thumb to estimate a product’s lifetime is to look at its warranty period, as it can help you guess how often its manufacturer would be launching new products. </p>
<p>Apple provides a one-year limited warranty and launches <a href="http://time.com/2934526/apple-iphone-timeline/">a new iPhone</a> almost every year. After the initial warranty period, you need to purchase an additional warranty for extended coverage. </p>
<p>The warranty period is clearly not the actual expected lifetime of a product. But it does mean that if you don’t care for your device, you will be paying extra money for additional coverage in the best case scenario, or buying a new and more expensive device in the worst. </p>
<p>After a few years, even your caring attitude will inevitably reach a point of diminishing returns because no matter how functional the hardware is, the software technology driving it evolves much faster. </p>
<h2>Reduced choice</h2>
<p>New products are seen as new choices but, unless you have the financial means, you actually have fewer choices. </p>
<p>Using your older device constrains you because of the limited support for its hardware and software. And what happens when your old device runs into issues, even if they are minor ones? Since there’s no more support available for the hardware or the software, your options are to upgrade, or look for people with the skills to repair it. </p>
<p>An upgrade can be expensive and the people with the necessary skills may simply not exist. Technical repair skills have sadly <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2007/jan/15/retail.electronicgoods">been on the decline</a>. </p>
<p>This is not just the case in the consumer electronics industry, where the US Bureau of Labour Statistics predicts a decline of 2% from 2014 to 2024 for electrical and <a href="https://www.bls.gov/ooh/architecture-and-engineering/electrical-and-electronics-engineering-technicians.htm">electronics engineering technician jobs</a>, but also in the <a href="http://www.autonews.com/article/20140519/RETAIL05/305199975/sputtering-auto-education-leads-to-skills-breakdown">automobile</a>and other industries. This is a trend seen across in advanced economies. </p>
<p>Developing countries tend to have secondhand markets and thriving repair bazaars, such as Nehru Place and Gaffar Market in New Delhi, Harco Glodok in Jakarta and 25 de Marco in Sao Paolo. You may have access to these markets, but the quality of their services is seldom guaranteed – and not all services are legal. </p>
<h2>Effect on purchasing power</h2>
<p>It’s one thing to have purchasing power limited by financial means and another entirely to have it curtailed because of reduced choices. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/157657/original/image-20170221-18633-j4ikdc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/157657/original/image-20170221-18633-j4ikdc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157657/original/image-20170221-18633-j4ikdc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157657/original/image-20170221-18633-j4ikdc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157657/original/image-20170221-18633-j4ikdc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157657/original/image-20170221-18633-j4ikdc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157657/original/image-20170221-18633-j4ikdc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The author’s functional but nonetheless doomed laptop.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sharad Sinha</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While companies may claim that user expectations change market dynamics, it’s also true that many companies make tireless efforts through advertisements and promotions to influence user expectations. Some actually try to <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/3032675/hit-the-ground-running/5-psychological-tactics-marketers-use-to-influence-consumer-behavior">set user expectations</a>. </p>
<p>The latter is typified in the idea that “customers don’t know what they want”, which is eschewed by many <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/chunkamui/2011/10/17/five-dangerous-lessons-to-learn-from-steve-jobs/#f16a9960da3c">because of Steve Jobs</a>. The goal of this idea is essentially to manoeuvre customers to satisfy a company’s goals. </p>
<p>When a large customer base moves towards a particular set of products, a company need not continue offering support for pre-existing products. Many people may not need the new product, but they sell in the name of technological ‘evolution’ even when this evolution is nothing more than feature enhancement. </p>
<h2>Contribution to e-waste</h2>
<p>In countries where a service provider also sells consumer devices on contract, reduced choices may not be apparent. Take for example, smart phones such as Apple’s iPhone, which are sold by mobile carriers. With the launch of every a new iPhone, customers may have the option to upgrade to the latest device at a cost. Many see this as an opportunity to get a new device every few years. </p>
<p>Some of the devices discarded as a result may find their way through <a href="http://www.apple.com/iphone/trade-up/">vendor buyback programs</a>, <a href="https://www.gazelle.com/">others</a> may be recycled or refurbished versions in certain markets – but mostly without any warranty. Many others still, though, find their way to a landfill and thus contribute to electronic waste. </p>
<p>Even if we give consumers the choice to not contribute to e-waste or delay it as much as possible, will they be likely to exercise it? Probably not, given the rate of technological evolution. Devices discarded because of a lack of technical support (like my laptop) are likely to find their way to landfills. </p>
<p>A lot of the technological evolution in consumer electronics market today is not trying to solve a pressing need. Rather, it’s trying to fulfil desires, not all of which are innately human. And, in the process, it is reducing the choices we have.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/71799/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sharad Sinha does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>When technology evolves, it affects not only your financial position but also your ability to exercise other choices.Sharad Sinha, Research Scientist in Computer Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/571492016-05-17T19:34:21Z2016-05-17T19:34:21ZSales increase by up to 56% when shoppers know a product will last<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121779/original/image-20160509-20595-1fod9rr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>From fashion to food and electronics, many industries are facing a backlash against cheaply made products that do not last. Sick of printers that break within two years, or suitcases that fall apart the second time you use them, there is a growing appetite for long-life guarantees – from the promise of the <a href="http://www.tomcridland.com/">30-year jumper</a> to the rise of <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/feb/16/buy-me-once-online-store-lifetime-guarantee-product-reviews">shopping sites</a> dedicated to products that last a lifetime. </p>
<p>But we don’t always know whether a product will last when we buy it.</p>
<p>We recently carried out a study to see how consumption patterns would change if consumers were informed about product lifetime at the time of purchase. The European Economic and Social Committee has published the findings of this study, carried out by the <a href="http://www.univ-ubs.fr">University of Southern Brittany</a>, the <a href="http://www.sircome.com/">Sircome agency</a>, and the <a href="http://www.prf.jcu.cz">University of Southern Bohemia</a>.</p>
<p>Our main goal was to see whether displaying a product’s lifespan would influence a consumer’s decision to purchase. In other words, would our consumption patterns change if the lifetime was indicated? Would we choose the same products if we had this information? It seems we would not, and there are easy ways for manufacturers to inform of us of our options.</p>
<p>The experiment involved a sample of 2,917 participants from five European countries (Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Spain and the Netherlands). We designed a fake shopping website, which consumers could use just as if it were Amazon or ASOS. (Participants did not know the site was fake.) Once they had checked out their shopping basket, participants were directed to a questionnaire which gauged various socio-economic and psycho-social indicators.</p>
<p>The results showed that if shoppers had information on product lifespan, they would choose to buy longer lasting items: on average, a product’s sales increased by 56% if its lifetime was longer than competing products’.</p>
<h2>The products we want to last</h2>
<p>Displaying the lifetime does not have the same impact on sales of all products. Of the products tested, purchases of suitcases (+128%) and printers (+70%) were influenced the most by displaying the lifetime. Why these two products?</p>
<p>Suitcases are the quintessential roaming product, giving them two characteristics which makes the consumer rank lifetime as a priority: the trials of transport make resilience a key factor, and any item used solely for travel will be brought out only occasionally. If it is used rarely, the consumer has every reason to hope it will last a long time.</p>
<p>As for printers, they have one of the shortest lifetimes of all household electronic goods, and people buy them because they need them, not for pleasure – two more good reasons why we would want them to last.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121781/original/image-20160509-20599-1621488.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121781/original/image-20160509-20599-1621488.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121781/original/image-20160509-20599-1621488.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121781/original/image-20160509-20599-1621488.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121781/original/image-20160509-20599-1621488.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121781/original/image-20160509-20599-1621488.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121781/original/image-20160509-20599-1621488.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121781/original/image-20160509-20599-1621488.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Graveyard of broken dreams.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Sales of smartphones are among the least affected by displaying lifetime (+41%) – possibly because they are bought for pleasure and having the latest model is a factor for many consumers.</p>
<p>It would also seem that the importance attached to lifetime increases with the amount that people are prepared to pay. In other words, lifetime is more important when purchasing top-of-the-range products (+49%) than bottom-of-the-range products (+44%).</p>
<p>A full 90% of participants said that they would be prepared to pay more for a dishwasher which would last two years longer. On average, they said they would be prepared to pay €102 more for that guarantee on a dishwasher priced between €300 and €500. The results also showed that the amount consumers were prepared to pay for a longer lasting product varied with the GDP of the country in which they lived.</p>
<h2>How should lifetime be displayed?</h2>
<p>Various display formats were tested: of these, a format similar to standard A to G energy consumption categories were the most effective in informing consumers. With this display, the market share of products with a longer lifetime than their competitors increased by 84%. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121780/original/image-20160509-20581-1wc6qn4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121780/original/image-20160509-20581-1wc6qn4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121780/original/image-20160509-20581-1wc6qn4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1263&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121780/original/image-20160509-20581-1wc6qn4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1263&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121780/original/image-20160509-20581-1wc6qn4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1263&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121780/original/image-20160509-20581-1wc6qn4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1588&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121780/original/image-20160509-20581-1wc6qn4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1588&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121780/original/image-20160509-20581-1wc6qn4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1588&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">As easy as A to G.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Energy_label_2010.svg">Flappiefh</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>An indications of useful lifetime (indicated in terms of washing cycles, pages printed, and so on) came second, with an average increase in market share of 56% for products with a long lifetime.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, 80% of participants felt that the manufacturers were very to extremely responsible with regard to providing information about a product’s lifetime. </p>
<p>All these findings argue for legislation on product lifetime. There is no doubt that the reliability of the products purchased is important to consumers. The study showed that regulatory information would steer customers when purchasing products. </p>
<p>While not excluding their own share of responsibility in ensuring that their products last, consumers recognised that normal conditions of use would enable manufacturers to guarantee a minimum lifetime for their products. They also said they were prepared to pay more for products which last longer. </p>
<p>This points to an obvious policy response: an indication of lifetime should be mandatory on products, just as an energy rating is mandatory on many others. Providing an A to G rating for lifetime would allow manufacturers to meet consumers’ expectations, and consumers to make better choices.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/57149/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>This document has been written by European University of Brittany 's researcher and does not represent the point of view of the European Economic and Social Committee. The interpretations and opinions contained in it are solely those of the authors. This study was carried out by the University of South Brittany, SIRCOME and the University of South Bohemia following a call for tenders launched by the European Economic and Social Committee. The information and views set out in this study are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee. The European Economic and Social Committee does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this study. Neither the European Economic and Social Committee nor any person acting on the Committee's behalf may be held responsible for the use which may be made of the information contained therein.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gaëlle Boulbry ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>We want products that last, it’s up to manufacturers to provide us with the information we need to buy them.Mickaël Dupré, Maître de conférences associé à l’IAE Brest, chercheur associé au LEGO, Université de Bretagne occidentale Gaëlle Boulbry, Maître de conférences, chercheur en marketing, Université Bretagne SudLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/384612015-09-15T10:06:32Z2015-09-15T10:06:32ZMaking electric cars fun: why the newest Porsche runs on batteries<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/94515/original/image-20150911-1575-ysxyie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/takens/5575297408/in/photolist-9uERFo-5Vsb7Z-6Z2c9T-gAMfgW-6RLPnQ-4hNrAK-5eequ-xJB2A-rizg3f-9pAw8B-rGhuC-e1YcA1-4KV3tH-a89ik1-bRMrT4-aPJkFv-5LdVEe-9cbZ1x-d8J4ru-ne3fCy-dVReiN-9vRZN1-4NgE7M-3anjQ7-bEzUE9-eMAqe8-5q18US-3414ZV-ojaL3n-cTue1E-4TTtxz-5aYobF-ncpXHq-8jdkx-9AWbWH-goXcz-7Wwpu4-LuThf-5b3DKS-9BiJq6-ffoscB-5aYnGn-p9Qn6d-oZpdJt-59MnPL-ek94Td-4mdkci-mUhZv1-9f1u1d-nEgufp#">Maarten Takens</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>After a <a href="https://theconversation.com/electric-cars-wont-really-take-off-until-costs-come-down-or-petrol-goes-up-28578">slow start</a>, electric vehicles are gaining in popularity. London is now host to an electric car-sharing service, which <a href="http://qz.com/428116/the-electric-car-sharing-service-that-swept-through-paris-is-coming-to-london/">proved successful in Paris</a>. </p>
<p>Sales of electric vehicles have seen significant rises <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-32217969">in the last year</a>. Now Volkswagen has <a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/220c660c-5b2c-11e5-a28b-50226830d644.html#axzz3liKwLmim">unveiled a battery-powered Porsche</a> that is capable of travelling 500km on a single charge and refuelling in just 15 minutes.</p>
<p>Not that long ago the traditional car industry was accused of limiting the progress of electric vehicles. In the 2006 documentary, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0489037/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Who killed the electric car?</a>, S David Freeman said: “I think the clean car is too important to be left to the automotive industry”. By this he could have meant the stakes for humanity were too high to leave it to the car sector alone to sort out the solutions. But recent years have seen numerous big brands join the race to lead the electric car market – from Nissan and Renault to VW’s Audi and now Porsche models. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KoLHQI7CoMk?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Porsche have joined the race to win the electric car market.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>My colleagues and I studied the experience of early electric vehicle users and sought to understand the gap that seemed to exist between people expressing concern for the environment, but not changing their consumer behaviour <a href="http://www.bath.ac.uk/i-see/events/past-events/">when it came to the cars they bought</a>.</p>
<p>People tend to have two aspects to their decision making. They have a rational, cognitive side and they have a more hedonistic one that cares more about aesthetics than the practicalities. Both matter for people deciding to live more sustainable lifestyles. </p>
<h2>Magic carpet ride</h2>
<p>When it comes to electric vehicles, we found that people want to feel special in the vehicle they are driving. This was also apparent in the case of electric motorbikes. The exhilaration of riding ank electric bike was compared to “riding a magic carpet” by one interviewee who felt his bike allowed him to get closer to nature than ever before. </p>
<p>Other people highlighted the importance of the fun aspects of using an electric vehicle. For instance 30-year-old Aaron described why he preferred riding an electric motorbike: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>What I want it to sound like, and what in fact you get, is more of the experience of the wind whistling past you … the stuff that’s happening in the world around you. It’s more of a breathtaking and exhilarating experience because the world isn’t being drowned out by the sound of a motor. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>In terms of being closer to nature, he said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>You definitely have to be more careful around animals and things like that because you can come by them quite quickly. My first ride I think I saw two deer and a turkey, all of which saw me and I coasted, I sped right by them and they just kept on with their activities.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Aaron said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>It was so smooth. And the acceleration was so instantaneous that I loved it … you’re essentially distilling the motorcycle experience down to its most simple element. Not unlike surfing, where with a simple twist of the throttle and a shift of weight, you can glide through turns.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Forty-something Shannon likewise noted:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>You’re actually more aware of your environment on an electric motorcycle than a gas bike, because you hear things. You’re going to hear an ambulance a lot sooner [and …] you forget that you’re on a motorcycle entirely. It’s almost like sailing on a road, because there’s no distraction with vibration or noise or smell of exhaust.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/94521/original/image-20150911-1578-153vjjs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/94521/original/image-20150911-1578-153vjjs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94521/original/image-20150911-1578-153vjjs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94521/original/image-20150911-1578-153vjjs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94521/original/image-20150911-1578-153vjjs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94521/original/image-20150911-1578-153vjjs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94521/original/image-20150911-1578-153vjjs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Electric bikes can now break the 100mph barrier.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/skyfire/7345306310/in/photolist-cc5BEf-eacqgU-6aLhJd-azwfTS-8vJMp1-bJxqqT-98bYUX-qkJjmQ-5Vv23X-92iBKX-99SNUv-9Xvkdy-mNgN1f-c6vXc7-dXdid-6ufrqS-6kvX8-bEKB8J-5ys3Mx-8GMjQa-bLnKxZ-bgxcPP-4kL41Z-e1T89w-kWwwUo-tzecPz-a8WyFs-dNAugm-6ubgJP-pwkAkM-dYZHUT-8ovugr-aoymQ5-b6XZA6-cnfcim-qm3RNr-bWmJXC-aAToXo-8Bng7q-gNGrtA-47Z8uE-a4Lj2u-8jNCjS-KCzwW-6fxGWf-4rbZiw-8Hfhi1-e7Xwy8-a4Hu1D-nSWJaM">Phil Long</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Hurdles to overcome</h2>
<p>There are still issues to overcome. Anxiety over electric vehicle battery life persists among many people despite the extensive work by the government’s <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/office-for-low-emission-vehicles">Office for Low Emission Vehicles</a>. Progress is being made in terms of infrastructure provision, for example 16 rapid charge points were recently built <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/transport-minister-unveils-rapid-chargepoint-at-eden-project">across Cornwall for low emission vehicles</a>. These new charge points enable members of the public to charge their cars in as little as 30 minutes. The roll out of this infrastructure across the UK remains a key factor in seeing more electric vehicles on the road.</p>
<p>It’s important to remember that electric vehicles provide a viable alternative to petrol and diesel emissions that clog our city atmospheres. Their rise will contribute to safer cities for citizens in terms of air quality, levels of noise pollution and more enjoyable places to live. And, if we create great vehicles which make people feel like they are having fun, and not having to sacrifice part of their lives, then more people are likely to embrace the change.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/38461/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pierre McDonagh has previously received funding from the European Commission, Irish Research Council and Irish Research Council for Humanities and Social Sciences.</span></em></p>How electric cars are becoming popular – not just among environmentalists but old-school petrol heads too.Pierre McDonagh, Professor in Marketing, University of BathLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/395632015-04-28T04:19:40Z2015-04-28T04:19:40ZConfusopoly: Why companies are motivated to deliberately confuse<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/76848/original/image-20150402-31268-7koilq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Choosing a mobile phone shouldn't be this hard.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Image sourced from Shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Consumers today have easy access to a wide range of products and services. The task of choosing between hundreds of products or packages each having dozens of different fees however, is the opposite of easy.</p>
<p>Product and price variety gives consumers with varying tastes and usage patterns choice. But the overwhelming complexity of markets may have an anti-competitive effect: competition between firms is weaker when consumers are confused. Recent economic theory recognises the possibility that companies might have incentives to intentionally confuse their consumers by spuriously differentiating their products or by using <a href="http://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/abs/10.1287/mnsc.2013.1716">complex price schedules</a>. </p>
<p>There is also an increasing amount of empirical evidence that documents consumer biases such as <a href="http://rady.ucsd.edu/faculty/directory/gneezy/pub/docs/risk-taking.pdf">myopia</a> in decision making, <a href="http://www.prism.gatech.edu/%7Etbesedes3/besedes-breakdown.pdf">choice overload</a> and <a href="http://econweb.ucsd.edu/%7Ejandreoni/Econ264/papers/Kahneman%20et%20al%20JEP%201991.pdf">status-quo bias</a>, that can potentially be taken advantage of by companies. In the market context, my own research shows that <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167268115000074">price</a> and <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167718710000949">product complexity</a> can be used by firms to soften the level of price competition in markets. Obfuscation leads to both frustration and mistaken choices at the consumer level and overall higher prices at the market level.</p>
<p>Although some instances of complexity can be identified as misleading conduct, such as the <a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/media-release/accc-targets-alleged-false-and-misleading-nurofen-claims">Nurofen spurious product differentiation case</a> brought by the ACCC, in many instances it is difficult to distinguish genuine price/product variety from obfuscation.</p>
<p>Acknowledging that complexity in markets constitutes a market failure the regulator’s task is to rectify the market failure, but how? Unlike the cases of misleading conduct, complexity and choice abundance is a fuzzy and moving target that is difficult to regulate.</p>
<h2>Nudge economics</h2>
<p>One increasingly popular option is to help consumers deal with the complexity. Behavioural economics provides several potential remedies, for example by designing optimal defaults in case the consumer fails to make a choice, or standardising services to increase comparability. These are commonly referred to as <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/014311526X?ie=UTF8&tag=nudge-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=014311526X">“nudges”</a>, which do not restrict choices but simplify them for some people.</p>
<p>Many <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications?departments%5B%5D=behavioural-insights-team">studies</a> examine the effectiveness of such nudges in helping consumers make better decisions. But we don’t yet understand the possible unintended consequences of these nudges and how markets would respond to them. The first problem is the difficulty for the regulator to determine the optimal default option. <a href="http://qje.oxfordjournals.org/content/116/4/1149.short">Defaults are very powerful</a>, and a mistakenly chosen default can be extremely bad for the consumer. With great power comes great responsibility.</p>
<p>Another potential problem is that optimally designed default options might in the long run make consumers dependent and reduce their incentives to shop around and switch between companies, which in turn might <a href="http://www.tau.ac.il/%7Erani/nudge.pdf">lead to softer competition between companies</a>. There is a need for both theoretical and empirical research on these issues.</p>
<h2>Consumer choice</h2>
<p>Solutions to a market failure often come not from the government but from the market, through new technologies and new types of businesses. For example, third party comparison sites sometimes help consumers deal with the difficult task of evaluating multiple options. Although such sites have worked for some services, such as hotels and restaurants, others failed to provide a solution. And some <a href="http://www.news.com.au/finance/money/comparing-apples-with-apples-accc-warns-consumers-off-dodgy-comparison-sites/story-e6frfmci-1227139355910">created new problems</a>. Recognising the failure of these services in private health insurance, the Australian government started a <a href="privatehealth.gov.au">comparison service of its own</a>. </p>
<p>For other markets, there is hope that soon a <a href="http://www.itnews.com.au/News/402285,harper-review-wants-to-hand-big-data-power-to-consumers.aspx">virtual robot assistant</a> will track our behaviour, measure our preferences, scrape the web for offers and recommend the optimal product. Until then immediate action from regulators is likely to be necessary and useful. It is also essential to test the effectiveness of these actions through randomised control trials and other careful evaluation methods. </p>
<p>Law and regulation can also help change social norms. We don’t accept being <a href="http://thehealthcareblog.com/blog/2015/03/15/what-if-restaurant-bills-looked-like-hospital-bills/">charged seperately for cutlery, salt, pepper, chairs and visits to the restroom in a restaurant</a> but we do accept multiple fees in health, finance and telecommunication services. Regulations encouraging all-inclusive fees help consumers demand single and simple quotes for services. </p>
<p>In the long run, solutions will require consumer adaptation and consumer activism. Ultimately, consumers are the best judge of what they want and prefer to make their own decisions even when these are often the wrong decisions. Which is why the most attractive solutions will empower consumers rather than make the choice for them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/39563/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kenan Kalaycı does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Behavioural economics offers some solutions to the problem of too much choice, but will only work if consumers feel they can make their own decisions.Kenan Kalaycı, Lecturer in Economics, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/397002015-04-09T20:40:33Z2015-04-09T20:40:33ZWhy it’s time for companies to give us back our data<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/77420/original/image-20150409-18083-e43pcf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">It's personal: why shouldn't consumers reclaim the rich data trail they create?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Image sourced from Shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>For large corporations with access to large tracts of consumer data, the challenge remains using it to be helpful, without being creepy. For a retail store, it means making sure customers know their favourite products are on special rather than bringing the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/magazine/shopping-habits.html">news of a pregnancy</a> to an unsuspecting father of a teenage daughter. </p>
<p>Why shouldn’t we decide how our own data is used?</p>
<p>The rich data trail we create as consumers is already used by businesses to improve the offers they make to us. Our bank, utility provider, telco operator and video streamer have a detailed set of information with which to tailor their products and services.</p>
<p>But why does this data belong to the service provider, rather than the consumer? It might be really handy to be able to use that data to find the best offering from a range of providers, not just the one that is currently used. </p>
<p>In the UK, the new “<a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/providing-better-information-and-protection-for-consumers/supporting-pages/personal-data">midata</a>” service allows consumers to download the data trail they have left and which each of the service providers has collected. App developers have been encouraged to start offering software enabling people to use their own data to find the best product offering for them across the sector. midata has been rolled out on a mainly voluntary basis and is still in the early stages. In combination with consumer friendly switching regulations, such as bank account number portability, midata offers consumers a way of using their own data to make product and services choices.</p>
<p>This approach has been taken up in the <a href="http://competitionpolicyreview.gov.au/final-report/">Harper report on competition policy</a>. In its submission to the Harper review, consumer group CHOICE argued such a scheme would support “robust demand-side competition by enabling consumers to make better informed decisions” and would encourage innovation. </p>
<p>The ACCC put the case that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“initiatives to allow consumers to effectively use their information … have the potential to assist consumers to make better choices and drive competition.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The Harper panel also noted that the UK government believe that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“being able to base decisions on their previous behaviour will mean individuals can choose products and services which better reflect their needs and offer them the best value” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>and that this would also encourage innovation.</p>
<p>The report references the submissions of both CHOICE and the ACCC in coming to the view that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Markets work best when consumers are engaged, empowering them to make informed decisions.”</p>
<p>“The Panel sees scope for Australian consumers to improve their access to data to better inform their decisions.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This led to a recommendation on informed choice that governments (at all levels) should “allow consumers to access information in an efficient format to improve informed consumer choice”. The Harper review recommended that a working group should be set up to implement the recommendation. It then went further. It recommended:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“governments … should draw on lessons from behavioural economics to present information and choices in ways that allow consumers to access, assess and act on them”.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The consumer group peak body, the consumer law regulator and the competition policy review all agree that consumer access to their own data should proceed. What could go wrong? Well the data formatting needs to be agreed in order to make the system useful. The midata approach and similar systems in the US can provide a model, but this needs to be standardised in Australia. In order for the approach to work, a reasonable number of major service provider businesses have to volunteer. In effect, at least the Australian Bankers’ Association and one of Communications Alliance or the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association need to be on board.</p>
<p>Comments on the Harper report are due on May 26, 2015. Most of the submissions will be public and this will be the first opportunity to see whether the corporations that hold our big data will allow us to use it to make informed choices in a competitive environment. </p>
<p>Perhaps the challenge will be those other elements of non-price stickiness such a account number portability. Mobile number portability is merely an assumption in Australia. Perhaps the same should be true for bank account number portability if consumers are to get their hands on their own big data.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/39700/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rob Nicholls receives funding from the Australian Research Council and the Centre for International Finance and Regulation. He is a member of the Australian Labor Party.</span></em></p>The competition review could help shed light on whether Australian companies are willing to share the data they hold on us as consumers.Rob Nicholls, Postdoctoral research fellow, Swinburne University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/318312014-11-11T19:30:25Z2014-11-11T19:30:25ZPalm oil continues to destroy Indonesia’s wildlife<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64205/original/c3kjz9b6-1415678464.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Rainforest cleared for oil palm plantations in Borneo. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wak1/3713614294">Wakx/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em><strong>How do the products we buy affect the world’s rainforests? In the lead up to the <a href="http://www.environment.gov.au/rain-forest-summit">Asia-Pacific Rainforest Summit</a> held in Sydney this week, The Conversation is running a series on rainforest commodities.</strong></em></p>
<p>If you like KitKats, you can now eat them (mostly) guilt free, mostly because this video went viral. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VaJjPRwExO8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>As a result, Nestlé in Australia no longer source oil palm from companies that clear forests, and their <a href="http://www.nestle.com.au/Media/NewsAndFeatures/Nestle-Australian-chocolate-factory-sustainable-palm-oil">supply chain of oil palm</a> is transparent. </p>
<p>Consumer pressure on large multinationals to source materials from suppliers who do not clear forests is working. That’s the good news.</p>
<p>But it’s not all good news.</p>
<h2>Record levels of forest-clearing</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64200/original/nz2s2yvv-1415676693.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64200/original/nz2s2yvv-1415676693.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64200/original/nz2s2yvv-1415676693.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64200/original/nz2s2yvv-1415676693.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64200/original/nz2s2yvv-1415676693.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64200/original/nz2s2yvv-1415676693.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64200/original/nz2s2yvv-1415676693.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64200/original/nz2s2yvv-1415676693.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Australian KitKats no longer source palm oil from plantations that have cleared rainforests.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ideaconstructor/492269235">Kate Raynes-Goldie/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In 2012, Indonesia broke the record for tropical rainforest clearing. A recent article in <a href="http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/v4/n8/fig_tab/nclimate2277_F2.html">Nature Climate Change</a> revealed Indonesia has cleared more than six million hectares of forest between 2000 and 2012. This is double that of Brazil’s, the previous record-holder for rainforest clearing. Brazil’s deforestation rate has <a href="http://rainforests.mongabay.com/amazon/amazon_destruction.html">fallen dramatically since 2004</a> while Indonesia’s rate of clearing continues to increase.</p>
<p>Much of Indonesia’s clearing is for agricultural commodities in particular oil palm.</p>
<p>Almost 40% of primary forest-loss occurred in areas that restrict or prohibit forest-clearing, such as conservation forests. Now, most of the forest loss has occurred in carbon-rich, flammable peatlands.</p>
<p>Despite this, Indonesia <a href="http://news.mongabay.com/2014/0816-indonesia-deforestation-plan.html?n3ws1ttr">has planned to clear another 14 million hectares of native forest by 2020</a>.</p>
<h2>A disaster for biodiversity loss</h2>
<p>Not only has logging, first for <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-plywood-started-the-destruction-of-indonesias-forests-33087">plywood</a> and then for <a href="https://theconversation.com/over-logging-in-the-sumatran-forest-blame-your-diary-31830">pulp and paper</a>, paved the way for this wholesale destruction of Indonesian rainforest, but has also led to <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23764258">a biodiversity nightmare</a>. </p>
<p>As recently as 2004, scientists thought logging was the main driver of this biodiversity loss. </p>
<p>But the latest data show that the worst losses of biodiversity occur, not when forests are selectively logged, but when they are <a href="http://www.esajournals.org/doi/abs/10.1890/1540-9295-12.3.147?journalCode=fron">converted to oil palm plantations for palm oil production</a>.</p>
<p>Three-quarters of forest birds and butterflies are lost when forests are levelled for oil palm trees. Oil palm trees planted on peat swamps could cause the loss of two-thirds of the fish restricted to this habitat. According to <a href="https://theconversation.com/palm-oil-plantations-are-bad-for-wildlife-great-and-small-study-33632">recent research</a>, oil palm plantations contain half the number of insects as undisturbed forest. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64052/original/s64g283d-1415578146.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64052/original/s64g283d-1415578146.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64052/original/s64g283d-1415578146.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=298&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64052/original/s64g283d-1415578146.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=298&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64052/original/s64g283d-1415578146.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=298&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64052/original/s64g283d-1415578146.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64052/original/s64g283d-1415578146.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64052/original/s64g283d-1415578146.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Forest loss in Indonesia between 2000 and 2013 (pink), intact forest (dark green) and degraded forest (light green), logged forest (yellow) and oil palm (light pink). Click through for interactive map.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.globalforestwatch.org/map/6/0.40/107.22/ALL/grayscale/loss/600,556,581?begin=2001-01-01&end=2013-12-31&threshold=30">Global Forest Watch</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Global carbon stores going up in smoke</h2>
<p>Primary forests are also the largest above-ground carbon stores globally, and peatlands the largest pools of soil carbon. On the strength of this Indonesia is the third largest emitter of carbon dioxide in the world. </p>
<p>The devastating forest fires of 1997/8 — the largest ever known forest fires that burned five million hectares of forest and killed one third of all orangutans — were associated with a drought year. </p>
<p>It’s estimated that the carbon emissions from this fire were 13-40% of annual global fossil fuel emissions of the time. All forest fires in Indonesia have been in drought years induced by <a href="http://www.nature.com/srep/2014/140819/srep06112/full/srep06112.html">El Niño and Indian Ocean Dipole events</a>. These are associated with anomalous sea surface temperatures in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. The 1997/8 fires saw the strongest such anomalies of the twentieth century. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64201/original/bd3nm3sx-1415677308.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64201/original/bd3nm3sx-1415677308.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64201/original/bd3nm3sx-1415677308.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64201/original/bd3nm3sx-1415677308.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64201/original/bd3nm3sx-1415677308.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64201/original/bd3nm3sx-1415677308.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64201/original/bd3nm3sx-1415677308.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64201/original/bd3nm3sx-1415677308.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Oil palm fruit loaded onto a truck in Sumatra.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/worldresourcesinstitute/10402937623">World Resources Institute/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But something new happened last year. In 2013, for the first time known, fires started in a wetter-than-average year, following a two-month dry spell. In a year without regional climate anomalies, these fires — whose epicentre was in central Sumatra — set a new atmospheric pollution level, exceeding the 1997-98 record, over Singapore. The fires started on peatlands cleared of forest in preparation for cultivation including for oil palm.</p>
<p>Agricultural expansion for the consumer market accounts for up to <a href="http://www.chathamhouse.org/sites/files/chathamhouse/public/Research/Energy,%20Environment%20and%20Development/0913pr_deforestation.pdf">80% of global deforestation</a>. Put simply, the reason we are losing our forests is because of the things we buy in supermarkets. </p>
<p>And nothing perhaps embodies deforestation more than oil palm.</p>
<h2>Worth more dead than alive</h2>
<p>ABC’s The Checkout shows the diversity of products that contain palm oil, and the confusing labelling associated with trying to buy sustainable palm oil. A recent <a href="http://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming/solutions/stop-deforestation/palm-oil-scorecard.html">Union of Concerned Scientists scorecard</a> showed a global scorecard for companies moving to sustainable palm oil. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Rl8zB6dNzJk?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<p>In Australia, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/aug/22/orangutan-experts-plead-for-australian-food-manufacturers-to-reject-palm-oil">according to Zoos Victoria</a>, two businesses — Robern Menz and Thomas Chipman — have moved to 100% sustainable palm oil while Ferrero and Arnotts say they will move to sustainable palm oil by the end of the year.</p>
<p>Unilever, Nestlé, Cadbury, Kellogg’s, Mars, Coles and Woolworths plan a slower transition. After a <a href="http://www.greenpeace.org/international/Global/international/briefings/forests/2014/ProcterGambleDS_MediaBriefing_Final.pdf">concerted campaign by Greenpeace</a>
<a href="http://news.pg.com/press-release/pg-corporate-announcements/pg-sets-new-sustainability-goal-no-deforestation-its-palm-s">Proctor and Gamble</a> have also declared a no-deforestation commitment in its supply chain. </p>
<p>None of this, however, has reduced the monetary value of logging and clearing Indonesia’s rainforests. Between 2000 and 2010 the prices for logs, pulp and palm oil have <a href="http://www.esajournals.org/doi/abs/10.1890/100079">increased by up to 333%</a> (see also <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23764258">here</a>). </p>
<p>Logging lowland forests in Sabah (northern Borneo) can return profits of US$9000-13,000 per hectare. After lands have been logged and converted to palm oil they can fetch an additional US$4000-11,000 per hectare. </p>
<p>It would take a carbon price, say, of nearly <a href="http://www.esajournals.org/doi/abs/10.1890/100079">AUD$50 per tonne of CO<sub>2</sub></a> to match these prices. Worth more dead than alive, these opportunity costs are an almost insurmountable barrier to purchasing the land for conservation. </p>
<p>So in the mean time the battle-line for the orang-utans and their forests is the due diligence of a global army of consumers, working everyday and everywhere at the cash register.</p>
<p><em>This is the third article in our series on rainforest commodities. Catch up on the others:</em></p>
<ul>
<li><p><a href="https://theconversation.com/how-plywood-started-the-destruction-of-indonesias-forests-33087">How plywood started the destruction of Indonesia’s forests</a></p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://theconversation.com/over-logging-in-the-sumatran-forest-blame-your-diary-31830">Over-logging the Sumatran forest? Blame your diary</a></p></li>
</ul><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/31831/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Penny van Oosterzee is an Adjunct senior researcher at both James Cook University and Charles Darwin University. She is currently working on the ecosystem sector and climate change mitigation. She is partner in an Australian Research Council project on cost-effective restoration for carbon and biodiversity outcomes. She has also received Commonwealth Government Biodiversity Fund monies for a rainforest restoration project in the Wet Tropics.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bill Laurance receives funding from the Australian Research Council and other scientific and philanthropic organisations. In addition to his appointment as Distinguished Research Professor and Australian Laureate at James Cook University, he also holds the Prince Bernhard Chair in International Nature Conservation at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. This chair is co-funded by Utrecht University and WWF-Netherlands.</span></em></p>How do the products we buy affect the world’s rainforests? In the lead up to the Asia-Pacific Rainforest Summit held in Sydney this week, The Conversation is running a series on rainforest commodities…Penny van Oosterzee, Senior Research Adjunct James Cook University and University Fellow Charles Darwin University, James Cook UniversityBill Laurance, Distinguished Research Professor and Australian Laureate, James Cook UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/191402013-10-15T19:39:10Z2013-10-15T19:39:10ZCostco’s entry into petrol is unlikely to help most consumers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/33060/original/g4tsh4p9-1381813438.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Costco is looking to expand its US petrol business to its Australian stores.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">lokeswari/Flickr</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In a new twist in the long-running Australian petrol wars, Costco is <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/business/retail/australian-stores-are-a-costco-success-story-as-customers-sign-on-in-bulk-20131013-2vgu4.html">preparing to join</a> the discount petrol market. </p>
<p>Sydney’s second Costco outlet, scheduled to open later this year, will reportedly sell heavily discounted fuel.</p>
<p>Costco is already a <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/dr-gridlock/wp/2013/09/16/aaa-thinks-pumps-at-new-costco-may-drive-down-gas-prices/">big petrol retailer</a> in the United States and Canada, but is now extending petrol retailing to Australia and <a href="http://www.forecourttrader.co.uk/news/fullstory.php/aid/7361/Costco_confirms_plan_to_enter_UK_market.html">the UK</a>. It aims to set up petrol outlets at new Australian stores where <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/business/costco-wants-its-cut-of-cutprice-petrol-20120826-24ufq.html">space and regulations allow</a>. This follows Costco’s US model, but is very different from the “shopper dockets” approach used by Coles and Woolworths. </p>
<p>In the US, Costco sells petrol at its store sites and uses petrol to, literally, drive customers to the stores. It makes razor-thin margins on petrol with huge turnover. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Costco">In general</a>, Costco only sells petrol to members. Here in Australia, standard Gold Star Costco membership is A$60 per year and internationally the retailer makes a lot of its profit from membership revenues. As one Canadian journalist <a href="http://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/article/20130917/PRINCEGEORGE0304/309179980/-1/princegeorge03/will-costco-gas-make-a-difference-to-your-fillup">recently asked</a>:</p>
<p>“Is Costco opening their gas bar to make money from selling gas or to make money from selling more memberships?”</p>
<p>So what does this mean for Australian motorists?</p>
<p>In the big picture, not much. Australia is a net petrol importer and the retail price of petrol is dominated by two factors - the price (in US dollars) of Singapore refined fuel and the Australian dollar exchange rate. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) <a href="http://www.accc.gov.au/media-release/accc-petrol-report-shows-global-factors-drive-higher-prices">2012 petrol report</a> showed that our retail petrol prices and the international petrol price follow each other like a pair of ballroom dancers. And the exchange rate is be much more important than Costco when it comes to filling your petrol tank. </p>
<p>But petrol prices are emotive. Even a few cents per litre matters. And Costco in the US is regularly the cheapest retailer in the market. </p>
<p>But unless you are a regular Costco shopper, it is unlikely to be worthwhile driving to a Costco store just to fill up. Only 20 stores in total are planned for Australia, and not all of those can fit a petrol outlet alongside. So for most motorists, Costco outlets will be few and far between. </p>
<p>Also, paying a $60 membership up front means you have to buy a lot of fuel, or buy other Costco products, to save money. Even a saving of 4 cents per litre on a 50 litre tank will require 30 “fills” to break even. </p>
<p>In short, don’t expect a retail petrol revolution.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/33061/original/9sxj438t-1381813492.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/33061/original/9sxj438t-1381813492.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/33061/original/9sxj438t-1381813492.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/33061/original/9sxj438t-1381813492.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/33061/original/9sxj438t-1381813492.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/33061/original/9sxj438t-1381813492.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/33061/original/9sxj438t-1381813492.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Costco shoppers must pay an annual membership fee.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Madame Meow/Flickr</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Costco’s model probably raises fewer concerns for the competition regulator than the Coles and Woolworths “shopper docket” schemes. Costco is simply co-locating its warehouse stores and its retail petrol outlets. In contrast, Coles and Woolworths use “shopper dockets” to link geographically separate outlets. Despite the discount printed at the bottom of your grocery receipt, it is far from clear that the Coles and Woolworths schemes really benefit consumers. </p>
<p>Joshua Gans and I <a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=504263">looked at this issue</a> about a decade ago when Coles joined Woolworths in offering a discount on petrol when you purchase groceries. Our analysis showed why this could raise profits for one retailer, but only until the other retailer copied it. And while prices dropped to consumers, transaction costs rose, as consumers travelled to less convenient, but bundled, pairs of retailers. Put simply, if you use an extra litre of fuel going to and from the ‘paired’ grocery and petrol retailers, you have pretty much spent all your shopper docket savings!</p>
<p>The ACCC has been investigating whether the Coles’ and Woolworths’ shopper docket schemes breach competition laws. As it states in its 2012 petrol report:</p>
<p>“The ACCC is also currently examining the effects of shopper docket discounting schemes on competition and long-term consumer welfare having regard to the size (value), frequency and duration of these offers.”</p>
<p>The entry of Costco will make the competition issues even murkier and will undoubtedly lead to ACCC scrutiny. Costco has previously been subject to a <a href="http://www.fastcompany.com/60019/tiger-costcos-tank">legal challenge</a> in the US on its petrol pricing, with claims that it had illegally sold petrol below cost. Costco denied these claims.</p>
<p>The real story behind Costco’s expansion, however, is not petrol but groceries. The success of both Aldi and Costco in Australia has shown our retail grocery market was ripe for a shake-up. Coles and Woolworths compete like Tweedledum and Tweedledee. Despite all the noise, they look and sound the same. Costco and Aldi have shown that a significant number of Australian consumers want something different in their supermarkets. And they are voting with their wallets.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/19140/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen King was formerly a Member of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.</span></em></p>In a new twist in the long-running Australian petrol wars, Costco is preparing to join the discount petrol market. Sydney’s second Costco outlet, scheduled to open later this year, will reportedly sell…Stephen King, Professor, Department of Economics, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/149302013-06-17T20:33:22Z2013-06-17T20:33:22ZA guide to a second medical opinion<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/25653/original/pctpkgrw-1371444266.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">It's your absolute right to seek advice and to be in charge of what happens to your body.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Image from shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>How many dealers did you visit before you last bought a car? </p>
<p>Were you happy with the first quote you got for a painting job or kitchen renovation?</p>
<p>When it comes to your finances, your house and your belongings, it makes sense to do your research, shop around and make sure you’re getting the best advice. </p>
<p>But it seems few Australians take such a rigorous approach when it comes to their health. </p>
<p>In order to get the best outcome from a second opinion, it’s important to first <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22749657">negotiate the issues of power and autonomy</a> in your relationship with your treating health professional. As a patient, it is your absolute right to seek advice and to be in charge of what happens to your body. </p>
<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_ethics#Autonomy">Respect for autonomy</a> is drummed into health professionals, because the power balance in the clinician-patient relationship is generally with the clinician. Too little autonomy, and you will feel like you are being patronised or given no say. You should expect to be treated as a partner and collaborator in the process. And your opinions and preferences should be respected and honoured, regardless of the option you choose to take.</p>
<h2>How do doctors respond?</h2>
<p>Discussions about loyalty come up repeatedly, and as a pain specialist, I’ve met many patients who are doggedly loyal to their practitioners under any circumstances. Such people usually feel a second opinion is akin to a betrayal or a breach of trust, and wouldn’t think about it unless they had fallen out completely with their treating doctor.</p>
<p>GPs can have a relationship with their patients which goes back decades, and in my experience are unlikely to feel that it will be permanently derailed by seeing another clinician. When I did some general practice during my training, the much more experienced GPs used to welcome the chance to have a fresh set of eyes on the problem. They were happy to co-operate and provide you with all the information a second opinion doctor might find useful.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/25673/original/j2mrkkwx-1371449000.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/25673/original/j2mrkkwx-1371449000.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/25673/original/j2mrkkwx-1371449000.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/25673/original/j2mrkkwx-1371449000.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/25673/original/j2mrkkwx-1371449000.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/25673/original/j2mrkkwx-1371449000.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/25673/original/j2mrkkwx-1371449000.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Getting a second opinion is not akin to a betrayal or a breach of trust.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Image from shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Some of my colleagues tend to have differing levels of comfort with this idea. There are those who learnt their skills during the era of “doctor knows best” who regard articulate, informed consumers with suspicion. There are those with personalities that are naturally authoritarian, and some who are stressed or busy to the point that they react with frustration or anger to a request from a patient for extra information or time to consider their options. </p>
<p>Other colleagues seem to need reminding that they are meant to be assuming some basic responsibilities and duties of care rather than writing prescriptions or giving referrals on demand. With them, the balance is completely towards patient autonomy, and they seem to feel no real responsibility on their part to educate, advise or motivate their patients. They won’t worry if you want to get another opinion; they’ll have moved on the second you’re out the door.</p>
<p>If your first-opinion doctor seems to be like either of the last couple I’ve mentioned – and reacts either poorly or not at all to your request – a second opinion might be exactly what you need.</p>
<h2>Why seek a second opinion?</h2>
<p>Patients who seek a second opinion do not necessarily think <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11685782">their diagnosis is wrong</a>, nor do they necessarily <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19705981">disagree with the recommended treatment</a>. A <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16584804">recent French study</a> found that having standard practice guidelines which made diagnosis and treatment consistent did not reduce the need for second opinions. Most patients are not just looking for a Dr House to come up with a novel diagnosis or treatment.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/25671/original/78sk8t6b-1371448214.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/25671/original/78sk8t6b-1371448214.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/25671/original/78sk8t6b-1371448214.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/25671/original/78sk8t6b-1371448214.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/25671/original/78sk8t6b-1371448214.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/25671/original/78sk8t6b-1371448214.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/25671/original/78sk8t6b-1371448214.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Patients aren’t looking for a Dr House, they want genuine information in a readily understandable form.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Flickr/guilhembertholet</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The answer is simply communication. Most patients who seek a second opinion do so because they are unhappy with the information they’ve been given about their situation. They may also be unhappy with the way their diagnosis and treatment recommendations were communicated to them; they are seeking a clearer explanation or a doctor they feel a better rapport with. </p>
<p>Clinicians who provide accurate information in a readily understandable form would likely reduce the need for their consumers to seek second opinions.</p>
<h2>Tips for getting a second opinion</h2>
<p>Every patient story is different but there are some things that make the process of seeking a second opinion a little smoother: </p>
<p><strong>1.</strong> <strong>Let your usual treating health professional know.</strong> It will help preserve your longer-term relationship with them and make sure the new one you are seeing can get all the information they need.</p>
<p><strong>2.</strong> <strong>Be clear in your mind about what the reason for the second opinion is.</strong> Are you seeking an opinion, or possibly ongoing care from the new provider? Are you prepared to re-think the current diagnosis or treatment plan if this is recommended? A 2012 <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22539066">Israeli study</a> found that second-opinion clinicians tended to choose treatment with greater intervention if they knew there was a pre-existing, more conservative opinion.</p>
<p><strong>3.</strong> <strong>Be open with the new health professional that you are seeking a second opinion.</strong> This will focus the clinician’s attention on the part of your care that you’re concerned about. There is limited literature about the real-life benefits of second opinions, but if they are mostly being obtained for reasons of communication style and rapport, it would be plausible to assume that you will be more satisfied and do better generally with a clinician you can relate to well.</p>
<p><strong>4.</strong> <strong>Second opinions may lead to spending more time and effort</strong>, especially if you have to travel to another suburb, town or even interstate. Be aware that you may feel more obliged to follow advice you’ve gone to so much effort to obtain. This is also one of the reasons that you should have clear in your own mind what the point of the consultation is. Take your time to consider the second opinion as carefully as you did the first.</p>
<p><strong>5.</strong> <strong>Don’t consider the internet to be the final word on second opinions</strong>. The smartest people in medicine are not the ones writing on blogs and forums or selling their unique patented products. Stick to reliable, trustworthy sites from big institutions, and use this information to get a “background briefing” rather than to make a diagnosis yourself. </p>
<p>Medical diagnosis is an arcane art form, informed by equal parts of education, training, experience and judgement. It’s about having a whole diagnostic strategy for a given problem, including knowing when a negative test is as valuable as a positive one. Often it’s easy; occasionally it’s impossible – and sometimes it doesn’t matter at all.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/14930/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Vagg does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>How many dealers did you visit before you last bought a car? Were you happy with the first quote you got for a painting job or kitchen renovation? When it comes to your finances, your house and your belongings…Michael Vagg, Clinical Senior Lecturer at Deakin University School of Medicine & Pain Specialist, Barwon HealthLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/127602013-05-28T03:52:50Z2013-05-28T03:52:50ZDolphin-friendly tuna: we’re worrying about the wrong species<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/24329/original/jp6xwt84-1369281164.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">"Dolphin friendly" can be an empty promise: labels should tell us the entire impact of a tuna fishery.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Leeds Museums & Galleries</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Seafood is increasingly marketed as the clean, healthy choice for consumers – full of good oils and proteins and low in fat – with canned tuna a favourite cheap source of healthy protein. But <a href="http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pbio.1000131">science</a> provides ever-worsening reports on the state of many fisheries, and their effect on marine ecosystems. </p>
<p>As international conservation negotiations <a href="http://theconversation.com/who-pays-for-conservation-in-the-worlds-biggest-tuna-fishery-8663">flounder</a>, consumers and industry are increasingly relying on eco-labelling to tell which seafood products come from sustainably managed fisheries. But there’s more to tuna than “dolphin-friendly”: what do these labels really tell us?</p>
<h2>Labels need to tell the whole story of a fishery</h2>
<p>Traditional fisheries management and early eco-labelling schemes only focused on target stocks or iconic species. They did not consider how fishing affected target, associated and dependent species or marine habitats. </p>
<p>But in recent decades, fisheries management has used two key principles: the “precautionary approach” and the “ecosystem based approach”. </p>
<p>Under the precautionary approach, managers have to be more cautious when information is uncertain, unreliable or inadequate. They can’t use the absence of adequate scientific information to defer conservation and management measures. </p>
<p>Under the ecosystem approach, managers can’t just think about the species being fished. They also have to keep populations of dependent and associated species at levels where they can reproduce, and protect important marine habitats. </p>
<p>These are important developments, making managers consider the broader ecosystem impacts of fishing. While some fishing methods can be highly selective and only capture target species, other fishing methods can heavily damage the marine environment and capture large numbers of associated and dependent species, subsequently discarded as “bycatch”. </p>
<p>For example, most canned tuna is caught using <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seine_fishing#Purse_seine">purse seine nets</a> that encircle the school of tuna. If the purse seine net is set carefully around a free swimming school of tuna, this can be a reasonably selective method with little negative impact on the marine ecosystem. However, if the purse seine net is set on a school of tuna hiding under a drifting <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fish_aggregating_device">fish aggregating device</a> (designed to attract fish), non-target species can also get caught up, and fished at unsustainable levels.</p>
<p>As fisheries management has evolved in recent decades, so too have the eco-labels and certification schemes. One of the key developments has been the move away from a single-species/issue focus towards broader assessments of entire fisheries management systems. These give consumers a far greater indication of sustainability and integrity. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/23958/original/vytk4ny4-1368687512.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/23958/original/vytk4ny4-1368687512.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/23958/original/vytk4ny4-1368687512.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/23958/original/vytk4ny4-1368687512.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/23958/original/vytk4ny4-1368687512.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/23958/original/vytk4ny4-1368687512.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/23958/original/vytk4ny4-1368687512.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tuna purse seiner at sunrise on the Pacific high seas.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Greenpeace</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How tuna-safe is dolphin-safe?</h2>
<p>A team at the <a href="http://ancors.uow.edu.au/research/fisheriesgovernance/index.html">Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security</a> recently completed a peer reviewed study assessing different eco-labels and certification schemes currently used in Pacific tuna fisheries.</p>
<p>We looked at three different approaches to eco-labelling and certification: </p>
<ul>
<li>single-species eco-labels and certification schemes focused solely on iconic dolphins; such as the “dolphin-safe” label</li>
<li>comprehensive ecosystem eco-labels offering sustainability certification of entire fisheries; examples include the <a href="http://www.msc.org/track-a-fishery/fisheries-in-the-program/certified/pacific/pna_western_central_pacific_skipjack_tuna">Marine Stewardship Council</a> and the <a href="http://www.friendofthesea.org/">Friends of the Sea</a></li>
<li>seafood-industry associations with self-certifying sustainability claims; such as the <a href="http://iss-foundation.org/">International Seafood Sustainability Foundation</a>.</li>
</ul>
<p>In a literature review, we found tuna fisheries had unsustainable impacts on some species of tuna, shark, seabirds and turtles. But fishing impacts on dolphins were only a significant issue for a limited number of fisheries in the eastern Pacific. No credible threat to dolphin populations had ever been identified in the world’s largest tuna fishery - the Western and Central Pacific Ocean - nor raised in the relevant scientific and management organisations. </p>
<p>None of the single-issue dolphin-safe eco-labelling schemes comprehensively evaluated the status of <em>tuna</em> or other associated and dependent stocks in their certification processes. The ecosystem approach under the “Dolphin Safe” schemes was applied only in terms of how fishing affected dolphin populations. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/23960/original/3pkj3bgk-1368687515.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/23960/original/3pkj3bgk-1368687515.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/23960/original/3pkj3bgk-1368687515.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/23960/original/3pkj3bgk-1368687515.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/23960/original/3pkj3bgk-1368687515.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/23960/original/3pkj3bgk-1368687515.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/23960/original/3pkj3bgk-1368687515.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Transhipping tuna in Marshall Islands.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Quentin Hanich</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Dolphin safe eco-labels could potentially mislead or create perverse incentives. For example, dolphin safe eco-labels in the UK may satisfy consumer anxiety regarding dolphins but do nothing to improve fishing practices or address broader conservation concerns. Almost all canned tuna sold in the UK is skipjack tuna, which does not associate with dolphins in the same manner found in eastern Pacific yellowfin tuna fisheries.</p>
<p>Well-managed fisheries may get no recognition for any other environmental credentials, while poorly managed fisheries with other serious environmental impacts may still claim to be environmentally friendly simply by being certified as dolphin safe. In neither case are consumers presented with the accurate and relevant information needed to make well informed decisions.</p>
<h2>What does make a difference in tuna fisheries?</h2>
<p>Modern eco-labels that apply ecosystemic and precautionary approaches provide far greater information to consumers. They provide certainty that seafood products did indeed originate from a sustainably managed fishery. </p>
<p>Two labelling systems provide this: the Marine Stewardship Council and Friends of the Sea.</p>
<p>The Marine Stewardship Council’s certification of the Pacific islands free-school skipjack fishery shows how important good certification can be. This eco-label has set an important precedent: this fishery – purse seine sets on free schools of skipjack tuna – has far less environmental impact when compared with purse seine fisheries that set on tuna hiding under fish aggregating devices. </p>
<p>If free-school sets were used throughout the Western and Central Pacific purse seine fishery instead of methods that set on fish aggregating devices, overfishing of <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-cruel-calculus-of-conservation-the-numbers-game-facing-the-western-and-central-pacific-fisheries-commission-8738">bigeye tuna and oceanic whitetip sharks</a> could be reduced to sustainable levels. It would increase the productivity of the relevant tuna stocks and significantly reduce bycatch of other species. </p>
<p>Eco-conscious consumers need labels that address the management of commercial species, fishing impacts on other species and on the broader environment, and standards of governance. It isn’t enough just to know your tuna is “dolphin-friendly”. </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/12760/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>This research was supported by the Pew Charitable Trusts through a research grant to the University of Wollongong. The views expressed in this article are the independent views of the author. Any errors are the responsibility of the author.</span></em></p>Seafood is increasingly marketed as the clean, healthy choice for consumers – full of good oils and proteins and low in fat – with canned tuna a favourite cheap source of healthy protein. But science provides…Quentin Hanich, Senior Research Fellow, Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources & Security, University of WollongongLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/122242013-03-12T03:28:52Z2013-03-12T03:28:52ZDo you know how clean your electricity is?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/20719/original/tmh3ct8m-1361944558.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">It is not currently possible to find the energy source sold by any of the licensed electricity retailers in Australia.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Flickr/dereckGavey</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In Europe and America, electricity retailers let their customers know whether their electricity is coming from renewable energy or fossil fuels. In Australia, your retailer has no such obligation.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.isf.uts.edu.au/%22%22">Institute for Sustainable Futures (ISF)</a> at University of Technology Sydney and <a href="http://www.tec.org.au%22%22">The Total Environment Centre</a> recently decided to test the status of energy source disclosure by electricity retailers in Australia.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.tec.org.au/images/reports/30-1-13%20tec%20elec%20retailer%20disclosure%20briefing%20note_final%20v2.pdf%22%22">The study</a> looked at the 36 licensed retailers in the National Electricity Market (NEM). We found it is not currently possible to find the actual energy source of electricity sold by any of them. Nor are they required to give this information to customers. </p>
<p>Australia’s electricity retailers do not hesitate to advertise how “green” their electricity is. But in the absence of any real facts about the source of their power, customers have no way of really knowing where the power they purchase is from.</p>
<p>With a lack of available data on the retail market, we analysed data on the wholesale market (or energy generation). Only 38% of retailers also owned or operated electricity generation assets. But there is no way to link electricity generated to what is sold to the customer. This is because there are several ways that retailers can buy electricity from the wholesale market. So while the wholesale market provides transparency to retailers, the retail market falls down on providing the same transparency to the end user.</p>
<p>Of the 38% of retailers with generation assets, it is safe to say energy from renewable sources is a minority. The three retailers that offered 100% renewable energy represented only 7% of the total generation capacity. But the data we used was the most recent available and different generation assets may have been acquired by retailers since then. </p>
<p>If retailers know the energy sources of their retail sales, why not require such information be available to the consumer? This has been done by retailers in California since 1998 using a <a>Power Content Label</a> and by UK and European retailers since 2005.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/20518/original/gsb4z7fy-1361497310.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/20518/original/gsb4z7fy-1361497310.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/20518/original/gsb4z7fy-1361497310.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=714&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/20518/original/gsb4z7fy-1361497310.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=714&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/20518/original/gsb4z7fy-1361497310.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=714&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/20518/original/gsb4z7fy-1361497310.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=897&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/20518/original/gsb4z7fy-1361497310.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=897&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/20518/original/gsb4z7fy-1361497310.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=897&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">California’s Power Content Label.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In Europe last week a network of 21 European environmental NGOs promoting the use of renewable electricity approved criteria for the first (and only) pan-European <a href="http://www.ekoenergy.org/">ecolabel for electricity</a>. This was in response to European consumers questions: “what’s the use of choosing an electricity product, knowing that we are all getting electricity from the same grid?” “Which supplier and what products should I choose?” “And if I have a green contract, how does this affect my personal CO2-emissions?”.</p>
<p>For Australian customers who wish to be sure the electricity they are purchasing is from renewable energy, options are few and must be initiated by the customer. First, they can choose <a href="http://www.greenpower.gov.au/">GreenPower</a>, which the Australian Government formally accredits to be renewable energy only. In 2007 the <a href="http://www.tec.org.au/ge-latest-news/602-green-electricity-watch-makes-it-easy-to-make-the-switch">Green Electricity Watch</a> prompted retailers to disclose the GreenPower-accredited portion of electricity products which now make this an transparent option for consumers. Interestingly in our study only 47% of the retailers had GreenPower product sales. We were able to find total sales of only four retailers in annual reports and of these, the highest percentage of GreenPower sold is 3.2%. So where does the rest of the power they sell come from?</p>
<p>Second, customers can generate their own renewable energy. We looked at which retailers offered customers money for the solar power they produce. Some states have a mandated cost (or feed-in-tariff) to be paid to customers. Retailers can then choose if they would like to offer more than the mandated tariff. Approximately 33% of retailers in the study provided a solar feed-in-tariff above the mandated tariff. Only 19% publicly offered the mandated tariff. This leaves over half (58%) who did not provide consumers with information on feed-in-tariffs at all.</p>
<p>There are various campaign efforts by environmental NGOs that strive to help customers switch to cleaner and greener retailers. However, these may have the unintended consequence of further confusing messages. Mandatory disclosure would clear up such confusion. Or at least a ecolabel, like the one offered in Europe, that retailers are driven to meet.</p>
<p>But do consumers really care about long term environmental and social impacts of their electricity? McKinsey and Company recently provided significant insight into the “socially conscious consumer” including a tool to measure a consumer’s <a href="http://voices.mckinseyonsociety.com/whats-your-social-quotient/">socially conscious quotient</a>. The largest global <a href="http://www.brandassetvaluator.be/en/home">study of consumer and brand behaviour</a> in 18 countries found 63% of respondents make a point to buy from “companies whose values are similar to their own”. But they also discovered consumer trust in corporations has declined by 50% since the global financial crisis.</p>
<p>Regardless, environmental and social impact disclosure seems to happen. For years the Australian Government’s <a href="http://www.greenvehicleguide.gov.au/GVGPublicUI/home.aspx">Green Vehicle Guide</a> has helped consumers by rating new Australian vehicles based on greenhouse and air pollution emissions. The <a href="http://carbonoffsetguide.com.au/">Carbon Offset Guide</a> helps consumers find and choose offsets that are formally accredited. The Carbon Disclosure Project requests data on the carbon performance of the largest 200 corporations on Australia’s Securities Exchange. Last year’s request had a <a href="https://www.cdproject.net/CDPResults/CDP-Australia-NZ-Climate-Change-Report-2012.pdf">50% response rate</a>. <a href="http://bfa.com.au/">Certified Organic</a> and <a href="http://www.fairtrade.com.au/page/fairtrade-standards">FairTrade</a> standards are becoming household names for everyday products. The American <a href="http://www.goodguide.com/about">Good Guide</a> provides consumers with sustainability information for 145,000 household products via an Iphone app. The rise of <a href="http://collaborativeconsumption.com/">Collaborative Consumption</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-crowdfunding-9444">Crowdfunding</a> also show a shift in the social conscious of consumers.</p>
<p>But when it comes to our power, until the Australian Energy Regulator makes disclosure of the source of electricity mandatory in the NEM, Australia consumers will remain ill-informed and we will continue to fall behind other parts of the world.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/12224/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>ISF recieved funding from The Total Environment Centre to conduct the study of electricity retailers in 2012.</span></em></p>In Europe and America, electricity retailers let their customers know whether their electricity is coming from renewable energy or fossil fuels. In Australia, your retailer has no such obligation. The…Fiona Berry, Senior Research Consultant, Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/109852013-02-07T03:46:55Z2013-02-07T03:46:55ZPrivate health insurance and the illusion of choice<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/19669/original/ysp3hqwg-1359423021.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">There's a gap between what people with private health insurance think they're paying for and what they're getting.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">mvcaf/Flickr</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The number of people with health insurance plummeted in the 1990s, but almost <a href="http://www.phiac.gov.au/resources/file/membershipdata/MC%20Sep12.pdf">half the Australian population</a> now has private hospital insurance and over half have ancillary or extras cover. But our research on <a href="http://pubs.e-contentmanagement.com/doi/abs/10.5172/hesr.2011.20.3.306">private health insurance websites</a> and <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13698570802167413">interviews with consumers</a> shows that messages about increased choice don’t always match reality.</p>
<p>Both Liberal and Labor governments have been encouraging us to purchase private health insurance since 1997. They’ve claimed that private health insurance promotes choice for the consumer and takes pressure off the public health system. </p>
<p>Private health insurers urge us to <a href="http://pubs.e-contentmanagement.com/doi/abs/10.5172/hesr.2011.20.3.306">choose their products</a> so we can take responsibility for our health and have more choice in our health-care experience – including timing, hospital and specialists. And government tax penalties, higher rebates for people over the age of 30 and subsidies encourage us to finance our health-care needs through private health insurance.</p>
<p>But our research found that private health insurance may not increase choice in health care. In birthing and maternity care, in particular, people purchase insurance because they want choice of doctor and place of birth. But in regional locations, choice is limited. Despite participants in our research mentioning choice as the reason why they had private health insurance, all babies in our regional research site were delivered at the local public hospital.</p>
<p>What people were actually buying with their health insurance was what one participant called “the luxuries” and commentators have called “hotel services” – the capacity to move to a private hospital after the birth with privacy, nicer facilities and better food, as well as the <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13698570802167413">perception of better care</a>.</p>
<p>About a <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/DetailsPage/4839.0.55.0012009">quarter of people</a> with private health insurance use the public health system rather than the private system. This may be because the care they need is only available in the public system, or the cost.</p>
<h2>Extras surprise</h2>
<p>Many people are surprised at how much extra they have to pay when they use their private health insurance in hospital. By contrast, there are few, if any, additional costs in the public system. And many people don’t really know what they’re getting when they purchase private health insurance. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13698570802167413">Our research</a> into why people take out private health insurance found that people had limited awareness of what was covered in their policies and very few had increased choice if they did use it. Most often, we found that people have little knowledge about what’s covered by their private health insurance. As one participant said, “I pay more attention to the details of my car insurance.”</p>
<p>This may, in part, be because these details are confusing. While writing this piece, we did a search on the website <a href="http://www.iselect.com.au/">iSelect</a>, which is designed to assist consumers choose their health insurance, for the cost and value of private health insurance for an older couple without children. Even with these limited parameters, the search revealed a price range between $136 and $393 a month with significant variation in what was covered for both hospital and ancillary care.</p>
<p>Further confusion arises when one tries to compare the types of therapies that may be covered. Dental care provides an excellent example of major differences between insurers. Again, using the iSelect search, we found that the monthly ancillary premium ranged from $51 and $133 per month, the annual claim limit ranged from $500 to $1200 per person, with no clear link between the cost of the premium and the available benefits.</p>
<p>This also holds in the fast-growing area of complementary and alternative therapies. Our iSelect search revealed a huge variation in type of alternative therapies (such as acupuncture, naturopathy, traditional Chinese medicine) covered by the various private health insurers and the amount that could be claimed ranged from $100 to $700 per person per year.</p>
<h2>Irrational choices</h2>
<p>While one response to all of this may be that people should ensure they’re well informed and make rational choices based on their perceived needs, our research found that the notion of choice itself is problematic. Family history was more predictive of choice of insurer than cost-benefit analyses. People were unlikely to change insurers even when concerned about the cost.</p>
<p>Indeed, people appear to be much more cost and value conscious when shopping for consumer products other than health insurance. </p>
<p>One reason for this may be that despite the rhetoric of consumer choice, Australia has a world-class public health-care system. While sometimes falling short and often getting <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/wait-for-public-hospital-surgery-expected-to-grow-20120612-208a6.html">negative publicity</a>, the principle of a health-care system based on equity and access accords well with Australian values. </p>
<p>Unlike health systems where individuals must take all responsibility for their health-care costs, Australia’s public health system provides a safety net that ensures we are not wholly dependent on health insurance. </p>
<p>But for those who do choose to pay for private health insurance, the capacity to choose their care remains unequally distributed. </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/10985/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Karen Willis and colleagues will receive funding from the ARC for a three-year study on health-care choice from 2013.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kirsten Harley and colleagues will receive funding from the ARC for a three-year study on health-care choice from 2013.</span></em></p>The number of people with health insurance plummeted in the 1990s, but almost half the Australian population now has private hospital insurance and over half have ancillary or extras cover. But our research…Karen Willis, Health sociologist, qualitative researcher, University of SydneyKirsten Harley, Health sociologist, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.