Can financial incentives help people trying to establish new habits? Experimental evidence with new gym members

Mariana Carrera, Heather Royer, Mark Stehr and Justin Sydnor

Journal of Health Economics, 2018, vol. 58, issue C, 202-214

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.

Keywords: Exercise; Incentives; Endowment effect; Overconfidence (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 D3 I12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (21)

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Working Paper: Can Financial Incentives Help People Trying to Establish New Habits? Experimental Evidence with New Gym Members (2017)
Working Paper: Can Financial Incentives Help People Trying to Establish New Habits? Experimental Evidence with New Gym Members (2017)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jhecon:v:58:y:2018:i:c:p:202-214

DOI: 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2018.02.010

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