There is an obvious model of this, I call it the “can of worms” model. When something is contained under pressure and the container cracks, odds are that more than a single worm will get out, and it is much harder to put the worms back in than to keep them in. This model describes some very diverse phenomena, like nuclear fission, glass breaking, contested divorce, social revolution, etc. That said, I am not sure how applying this model can help one avoid this pitfall.
Think of a scalar potential shaped like a cirque. A body in the depression can be perturbed a little without falling out, because it meets a restoring force at the walls. But if the body is moving fast or the wall of the depression becomes flat, then the body moves out and falls down the mountain side. A lot of energy is then required to move it back up. Shminux is just saying that people dieting are in a local minimum of their potential, and it doesn’t take much motivational impetus to make them fall off the wagon. Not a perfect analogy, but it’s understandable.
There is an obvious model of this, I call it the “can of worms” model. When something is contained under pressure and the container cracks, odds are that more than a single worm will get out, and it is much harder to put the worms back in than to keep them in. This model describes some very diverse phenomena, like nuclear fission, glass breaking, contested divorce, social revolution, etc. That said, I am not sure how applying this model can help one avoid this pitfall.
What model are you talking about? In what sense is this compatible with the experiment you quote in the post?
Think of a scalar potential shaped like a cirque. A body in the depression can be perturbed a little without falling out, because it meets a restoring force at the walls. But if the body is moving fast or the wall of the depression becomes flat, then the body moves out and falls down the mountain side. A lot of energy is then required to move it back up. Shminux is just saying that people dieting are in a local minimum of their potential, and it doesn’t take much motivational impetus to make them fall off the wagon. Not a perfect analogy, but it’s understandable.