William_Quixote comments on What should I have for dinner? (A case study in decision making) - Less Wrong
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If this is the case, what mechanism explains the steady decline in willpower over the last 70 years?
What steady decline?
Over the past 70 years, obesity has increased significantly, as have heart disease and several other related diseases. If someone wants to argue that obesity is caused by low willpower (as the above poster at least partially claims)
then I want to see some explanation for why willpower has declined over that time period. If someone tells me diet changes have caused obesity and they point to diet changes over the past N years and rising obesity over the past N years, the pieces of their story fit together. So I’m asking (somewhat skeptically) what’s the mechanism for the willpower story? How does it fit the observed trend?