 Can nudging overcome procrastinating on preventive health investments?Willa Friedman and Nicholas Wilson Economics & Human Biology, 2022, vol. 45, issue C Abstract: A fundamental puzzle about human behavior is low investment in preventive health inputs. Present-biased preferences have frequently been put forth as a theoretical explanation for this, but with limited empirical evidence supporting it, especially in developing countries. We extend our previous analysis of a field experiment testing advertising strategies to increase demand for a potentially life-saving preventive health technology, voluntary medical male circumcision. Offering compensation of US$10 conditional on a complement to the procedure, a short counseling session at a providing clinic, tripled uptake of the procedure. This is consistent with the idea that subsidizing a complement encouraged procrastinating men with latent demand to invest in preventive health. In addition, framing the basic advertisement using the statement “Are you tough enough?” doubled uptake. Keywords: Advertising; Conditional cash transfers; Framing; Men's health; Preventive health; Procrastination (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ehbiol:v:45:y:2022:i:c:s1570677x21000642 DOI: 10.1016/j.ehb.2021.101040 Access Statistics for this article Economics & Human Biology is currently edited by J. Komlos, Inas R Kelly and Joerg Baten More articles in Economics & Human Biology from Elsevier |
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