Case Western Reserve University, United States.
University of California, Santa Barbara & IZA & NBER, United States.
J Health Econ. 2018 Mar;58:202-214. doi: 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2018.02.010. Epub 2018 Mar 1.
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.
经济激励能否帮助人们养成积极的健康行为习惯？我们通过一项针对健身俱乐部新会员参加健身房活动的适度经济激励的随机对照试验，为这个问题提供了证据。我们的实验将 690 名参与者随机分为对照组，对照组无条件获得 30 美元的报酬，或分为 3 个激励组，激励组在会员期的前 6 周内至少参加 9 次健身房活动可获得报酬。两个激励治疗组提供 30 美元和 60 美元的金钱报酬。第三个激励治疗组受到禀赋效应的启发，提供了价值 30 美元的实物商品。所有三种激励措施在会员前 6 周的出勤率方面仅有很小的影响，对激励后的访问轨迹也没有影响。我们记录了新成员对自己可能访问的过度自信，并讨论了过度自信如何削弱激励计划的有效性。
