Viewing the Human Body as a Machine in an Effort to Promote Health Turns Out to Be Not Healthy

New research out of Stanford Graduate School of Business indicates that when we’re encouraged to view the human body as a machine (a process called dehumanization) in an effort to promote health, we actually arrive at the opposite effect. 

In examining eating self-efficacy (confidence in ability to choose healthy food), researchers Andrea Weihrauch and Szu-chi Huang show that portraying humans as machines activates consumers’ expectation of adopting a machine-like approach to food - something too difficult to meet for those with low (vs. high) eating self-efficacy, thus leading to these divergent outcomes. 

 Using five studies to test this belief, the research digs into various human-as-machine representations inspired by anthropomorphism research, health education, marketing, and tech advancements (like AI).