The Life Scientific

Original version

BBC Radio 4 FM

BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

BBC Radio 4

Radio 4

Radio 4 (FM)

BBC Radio 4 LW

The Life Scientific: Theresa Marteau on how to change behaviour

Theresa Marteau on how to change behaviour

BBC Radio 4 - The Life Scientific, Theresa Marteau on how to change behaviour

Prof Dame Theresa Marteau tells Jim Al-Khalili about her life and work.

Prof Dame Theresa Marteau tells Jim Al-Khalili why she changed her mind about how to change behaviour.

We all know how to be more healthy. And yet we are also remarkably good  at NOT doing what we know is good for us. We keep meaning to get fit, but the sofa seems so much more appealing than a run. We know we shouldn’t have another slice of cake, but we do. 
Behavioural psychologist, Professor Dame Theresa Marteau wants to understand why, despite the best of intentions, so many of us fail to adopt healthier lifestyles. She talks to Jim Al-Khalili about her life and work and why, after studying the evidence she changed her mind about how to change our behaviour.    
Back in the 90s, it seemed reasonable to assume that telling people they were at high risk of dying would jolt them into eating more healthily and taking more exercise. Now we know better. Thanks in large part to research pioneered by Theresa, we have a much more sophisticated understanding of what drives our behaviour. It turns out that small scale interventions to redesign our environment can exert a big influence on our behaviour by nudging us all into make better decisions, in ways that are beyond our awareness. Spoiler alert  - smaller wine glasses really do make you drink less!   
Responses to Covid-19 show that nations can act rapidly and radically in response to immediate threats to health, even at huge cost.  Can we do the same to tackle other threats to global health? 
Producer: Anna Buckley

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Podcasts

Factual: Life Stories

Factual: Science & Nature

Factual: Science & Nature: Science & Technology

Professor Jim Al-Khalili talks to leading scientists about their life and work.

Professor Jim Al-Khalili talks to leading scientists about their life and work, finding out what inspires them and asking what their discoveries might do for us in the future.

Professor Jim Al-Khalili talks to leading scientists about their life and work, finding out what inspires and motivates them and asking what their discoveries might do for us in the future

Accessibility links

Programme Index

The Life Scientific

Theresa Marteau on how to change behaviour

Genres

Series

BBC Radio 4 FM

About BBC Radio 4