Incentives to Exercise
通过两个实验发现，对一个月内去健身房一定次数给予金钱奖励，能显著增加非经常锻炼者的后续出勤率，并改善体重、腰围和脉搏等健康指标，表明激励有助于健康习惯的形成。
Can incentives be effective in encouraging the development of good habits? We investigate the post-intervention effects of paying people to attend a gym a number of times during one month. In two studies we find marked attendance increases after the intervention relative to attendance changes for the respective control groups. This is entirely driven by people who did not previously attend the gym on a regular basis. In our second study, we find improvements on health indicators such as weight, waist size, and pulse rate, suggesting the intervention led to a net increase in total physical activity rather than to a substitution away from nonincentivized ones. We argue that there is scope for financial intervention in habit formation, particularly in the area of health. Copyright 2009 The Econometric Society.