Hey, it's Flor Lichten, and you're listening to Science Friday. Today in the show.

When a beer tastes both refreshing and flavorful, there are some reactions you can't control,

and some you can. Please drink responsibly.

We have all heard this on alcohol ads. Please drink responsibly.

You might have heard something similar on gambling ads like when the fun stops, stop.

There was even a moment of calorie caution in soda ads.

All calories count.

And if you eat and drink more calories than you burn off, you'll gain

weight. That goes for Coca-Cola and everything else with calories. Finding a solution. The message behind

these disclaimers are kind of the same. These products have risks, but mitigating them,

well, that's on you.

So how did we get to this idea that it's our personal responsibility to make a dent in big problems, not say the job of government to impose regulations?

Well, behavioral scientists played a role, according to my next guest.

Dr. Nick Chater,

Professor of Behavioral Science at Warwick University and co-author of It's On You,

How Corporations and Behavioral Scientists have convinced us that we're to blame for society's

deepest problems. Nick, thanks for being here. Well, thank you very much for having me.

Did I get the big picture right in that

intro? Yes, I think you did. Absolutely. I should also put a shout out for my close co-author,

George Lewinstein, at Carnegie Mellon University. So we've worked on this absolutely as a joint project

from the beginning. And George is very relevant here because he was in there at the beginning of the time when

behavioural science started to get engaged with public policy.

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