Did Sept. 11 Make Us Fat? How the Attacks Affected the Weight-Loss Business

Joseph Hallinan explores a brightly painted carousel of reasons for human error in his fascinating Why We Make Mistakes: How We Look Without Seeing, Forget Things in Seconds, and Are All Pretty Sure We Are Way Above Average (Broadway, 283 pp., $24.95). He concludes that time – among other factors – affects our decisions, no matter how much of it we have. He writes:

“After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, for instance, time horizons for many people in the United States shortened. People, especially those in big cities like New York, increasingly adopted a ‘live for the day’ attitude. Activities with long-term benefits, like diet and exercise, were out; treating oneself well in the here and now was in. One result: the diet chain Jenny Craig reported ‘a huge wave of cancellations.’”