In Germany, the percentage of people who have registered as organ donors is about 12 percent. In the country right next door — Austria — the rate is nearly 100 percent. The difference is not, as one might imagine, some major cultural or religious divergence. It’s that, in Austria, you are automatically an organ donor unless you opt out. In Germany, you have to opt in.
Behavioral research shows that we are naturally inclined to go with the default choice. This finding is helping a program in Gillette, Wyoming, keep more kids in need from going hungry on weekends.
Every Friday afternoon, more than 80 students at Prairie Wind Elementary climb onto their school buses with their backpacks filled with granola bars, mac-and-cheese, fruit cups, ravioli, and apples. While these kids depend on free or reduced-price school lunch during the week, these bags of food, provided by the non-profit Blessings in a Backpack, are lunch for the weekend.
[For more of this story, written by Karen Weese, go to https://psmag.com/this-is-your...68f813944#.e6jjgan4k]
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