Developed for the Foresight Tackling Obesities project, this causal loop map was
designed to provide systemic insight into the multiplicity of factors
contributing to the obesity epidemic. Behind the simple result of people
becoming heavier, lies a complex web of often reinforcing causal factors
that range from individual psychology and physiology to the culture and
economics of food production, food consumption, attitudes toward physical
activity, and structure of the built environment.The 108 variables shown
on the map - the drivers of obesity - were compiled by shiftN, from the 38 science reviews
produced for the project and then vetted by the project's science team. The
drivers are woven into systemic picture by the positive and negative
influence arrows that link the variables into a web of causal
relationships.