[Sakai]

I think it was NBC..@_@

Anyways, part of this special wanted to see what positive and negative reinforcement had on people. So they went to this ball park and gathered up people who worked there who were overweight. They spilt them into two groups and whatever group lost the most weight won. now they took one group and had them in positive group meetings with motivational speakers and such.
They took the second group, had them change into TINY bikini like bathing suits (even the men had these tiny things, not really speedos but close).. then they took them one by one to home plate and took their picture. Then they told the group that if they didn't lose at least 15 pounds in the 2 months then they would show their pictures on the big screen during a game.


talk about motivation. the Theory was that the people who back themselves in a corner and with the fear of shame, would lose more weight. Turns out the positive group lost only slightly more weight than the negative group.

At first I was all...."Man, I wish that happened to me, because I sure would try my very hardest to lose the weight." But then I thought, I bet those poor people were in a state of panic for those 2 months. the stress must have been terrible.

Did anyone else see this?

[Spideranne]

I saw it. At first I had it on as background noise while doing the Christmas cards but it turned out to be really interesting. It was almost this bizarre cross between the show Numbers with the game theory and Biggest Loser.

What I thought was most interesting was not so much the positive or negative reinforcement but the concept that because everyone was part of a game or situation that had a beginning and end and rules, people changed their behavior. People who had "tried everything" figured out a way to lose weight. They did it on their own too, didn't have a specific plan to follow.

[thintowin]

Very interesting. I wish someone would threaten to post a pic of me in a bikini! Just kidding, I like losing my weight slowly.

[brandewijn]

Interesting. I didn't catch it on. I wish I would've though.

[CLCSC145]

What surprised me was that two people from the humiliation-threat group missed the mark! The fear of having my picture in a bikini on the jumbotron at a stadium would have motivated me to drop a lot more than 15 pounds in two months just to be safe.

[lilybelle]

I saw it. I am sure that if I was in fear of my picture up on that big marquee in a bikini, I'd have lost the weight. I wouldn't wear a bikini now or ever. I was glad to see that in the end, the ones that fell short of the 15 lbs. didn't have their pic's put up there. I was hoping that is how it would end.

[FrouFrou]

I missed the show but what a great motivation that would have been for me! Although, I probably wouldn't have done it because at the weight I am at now I would NEVER put on a bikini or bathing suit unless I was covered, lol! Wish I would have seen that though.