The Snackwell's effect
The proliferation of reduced-fat cookies and other quasi-healthy-sounding snacks has had a perverse result: Many people relax their guard around such food, eat more, and so wind up packing on pounds. The phenomenon is common enough to have a name: the Snackwell's effect, after a popular brand of Nabisco cookies aimed at health-conscious consumers.
In its current issue, Consumer Reports notes a similar effect in the arena of energy conservation. A 2008 study by the University of Michigan economist Lucas Davis, for example, found that people who owned energy-efficient washing machines did more loads of laundry than people who owned conventional machines -- in some cases canceling out the advantages of the new technology. Similarly, a different study, by a group called the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, found that consumers waste 5 to 15 percent of the potential energy savings of compact fluorescent lightbulbs. These consumers conscientiously adopt green technology -- then start leaving more lights on.
