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Published, Version of Record (VoR)Open Access (License Unspecified), Open
Journal article
Can financial incentives help people trying to establish new habits? Experimental evidence with new gym members
Journal of health economics, v 58, pp 202-214
Mar 2018
PMID: 29550665
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
Can financial incentives aid habit formation in people attempting to establish a positive health behavior? We provide evidence on this question from a randomized controlled trial of modest-sized incentives to attend the gym among new members of a fitness facility. Our experiment randomized 690 participants into a control group that received a $30 payment unconditionally or one of 3 incentive groups that received a payment for attending the gym at least 9 times over the first 6 weeks of membership. Two incentive treatment arms offered monetary payments of $30 and $60. The third incentive treatment, motivated by the endowment effect, offered a physical item worth $30. All three incentives had only small impacts on attendance during members’ first 6 weeks and no effect on their post-incentive visit trajectories. We document substantial overconfidence among new members about their likely visits and discuss how overconfidence may undermine the effectiveness of incentive programs.
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Details
- Title
- Can financial incentives help people trying to establish new habits? Experimental evidence with new gym members
- Creators
- Mariana Carrera - Case Western Reserve UniversityHeather Royer - University of California, Santa BarbaraMark Stehr - Drexel UniversityJustin Sydnor - University of Wisconsin–Madison
- Publication Details
- Journal of health economics, v 58, pp 202-214
- Publisher
- Elsevier
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Economics (School of Economics)
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000430770200015
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-85043575072
- Other Identifier
- 991019168861504721
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- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Economics
- Health Care Sciences & Services
- Health Policy & Services