Could Vanity Be the Key to a Public Health Renaissance?

We've spent decades trying to improve population health by lecturing people about risks. Obesity, diabetes, chronic disease, heart disease, and on and on.

But what if we've been pulling the wrong psychological lever the entire time?

What if the real catalyst for a public health watershed moment isn't fear, shame, or compliance....

...but desire.

Think about it:

• People don't get in shape because they've been handed the latest peer reviewed journal on metabolic syndrome.

• They get in shape because they saw a version of themselves... confident, attractive, admired, and wanted that more than they wanted that next cheeseburger.

• People don't quit smoking because they studied lung function decline.

• They quit because they didn't want to smell like an ash tray on a date.

We keep pretending public health is a rationale equation.

It's not. It's emotional, social, and deeply tied to identity... especially aspirational identity.

So why not tap into the kid's Instagram glow-up scene? Why not craft policy with a level of creativity that meets the complexity of society in 2025? Not 1995.

The health system treats bodies as problems.

Culture treats bodies as potential.

And culture almost always wins.

Instead of asking:

"How do we get people to adhere to their care plan?"

We should be asking:

"How do we make being healthy feel irresistible, admirable, worth belonging to?"

Not another campaign about risk.

A movement about becoming.

A health system that helps people look in the mirror and see possibility, not limitation.

Hell, drop a mirror selfie in ChatGPT and prompt it:

"Illustrate what I could look like in 6 months with proper diet and consistent exercise."

This is where we're at in modern society.

The ability for any case worker or care team member to actually show a patient a photo-realistic version of what they could become... in seconds.

Public health has tried fear.

It's tried education.

It's tried incentives.

None of it scaled to meet the level of obesity and chronic disease we suffer from in the U.S.

Maybe it's time we try human nature.

Because vanity, when framed as self-actualization, isn't shallow.

In fact, it may just be the powerful behavioral engine we've been waiting for.

And if we combine that with the right science, the right incentives, the right care teams, and the right environments...

We don't get incremental improvement.

We get a culture shift.

Not "stop dying."

But "start living."