FREAK Shots: Nudging the Calorie Counters

We blogged about musical stairs in Stockholm that try to encourage stair-climbing rather than escalator-riding. One of the issues with this “nudge,” as Dubner wrote, is that it’s probably more fun for people to descend them than to ascend.
These stairs in Lisbon, however, address that problem by appealing to the calorie conscious.

Photo: petes travels

A similar nudge at an Israeli park encourages people to walk the long distance from the parking lot to a cave. As Flickr user goldberg explains, a series of signs along the route tell you how many calories you’ve burned.

Photo: goldberg

But since the people most influenced by calorie counts may be the least likely to go looking for cheese fries, what kind of effect does this kind of sign have?

Photo: kevharb

Or this one, at Coney Island?

Photo: bluespf42

Flickr user bluespf45, who took the Coney Island photo, puts it succinctly: “I really didn’t want to know.”
(Send your FREAK-worthy photos here.)