The scale of the future does not have numbers or dials. It won’t even tell you how much you weigh. It doesn’t have a screen to display your weight because, if you ask behavioral economist at Duke University Dan Ariely, weight is a metric of the past.

Ariely has spent his career researching the invisible machinery of human choice: Why we neglect to save money for things we need we know, why we lie to our friends, and to ourselves.

Recently, he’s turned his focus toward the choices we make about our health. Why, Ariely wondered, do people have such a hard time making healthy choices?

Most scales remind people of the shame, regret, and self-disgust they feel when they step onto one.

Even the simplest nugget of data can be misleading. When you see your weight go up two pounds, you assume you’ve done something wrong. When you see your weight go down two pounds, you assume you’ve done something right. Most of the time, you haven’t done anything at all.

“It’s incredibly confusing and demotivating,” says Ariely. “So we said, ‘OK, let’s rethink the numberless scale.’” More encouragement, less data. Ariely’s dream of the unquantified self.

The smart scale designed by Ariely captures bone density and muscle mass in addition to overall weight, and it connects to your phone. You simply step on, and step off. And it never tells you how much you weigh, not even in the app.

Instead, it analyzes all the granular information about your body and translates it into simple humanspeak: Either you’re doing fine, or you’re not.

Everything else happens in the scale’s app, which connects to the scale via Bluetooth. The app also pulls data from the health kit on your phone — so, if you wear a smart watch, or track your workouts through a mobile app like Keep, it can synthesize that data along with your weight.

A five-month study to test the screenless scale has shown that in a control condition, people who used a regular scale gained 0.3 percent weight every month. People in the other group, using the numberless scale, lost 0.6 percent weight per month.

Words to Learn 相关词汇

【详尽的】xiángjìn de granular having a high level of detail, as in a set of data

【综合】zōnghé synthesize put separate facts, etc. together to form a single piece of work

未来的体重秤没有数字和表盘，不会告诉你有多重，甚至它连显示体重的屏幕都没有。如果你想知道原因的话，杜克大学的行为经济学家Dan Ariely会告诉你，体重只是一个关于过去的测量数值。

Ariely一直致力于探求人们决策过程的不可见机制：为什么我们会忘记为那些必需品存钱，为什么我们会欺骗朋友、欺骗自己。

最近，他开始研究与健康相关的抉择。Ariely想知道，为什么做出健康的选择这么难呢？

当普通体重秤上的数值又上升一格时，人们会感到羞愧、后悔和自我厌弃。

最简单的数据也可能会误导你。你看到体重增加了两磅会觉得做错了什么。当你看到体重下降两磅，会以为已经做了一些正确的事。其实大多数时候你什么都没做。

Ariely说：“这简直是扑朔迷离，让人失去了减肥的动力。所以我觉得，我们要再考虑一下不显示数字的体重秤。”更多的鼓励，更少的数据。Ariely想要一个不被量化的体重秤。

除了测体重，Ariely设计的智能秤还可以获取骨密度和肌肉量，同时关联着你的手机。你只需要站上去，然后下来。秤上不会显示你的体重值，APP上也不会。

但是，它会综合分析身体相关的所有信息，并将其转换为最简单的人类语言：你做地很好，或者你表现不好。

APP与体重计通过蓝牙连接。APP可以从手机上安装的健康工具中提出数据 —— 如果你佩戴智能手环，或使用像Keep这样的APP跟踪记录运动，它可以将这些数据与体重数据综合起来。

以测试这种不显示数字的体重计的效果为研究目的的一项研究进行了五个月。

研究结果显示：使用普通体重计的对照组平均每个月增重0.3%；使用无数字体重秤的实验组，平均每个月减重0.6%。

(Chinadaily.com.cn)