Rational Habit Formation: Experimental Evidence from Handwashing in India
通过在印度农村设计带计时传感器的肥皂分配器，研究洗手习惯的形成，发现监测和激励能提高洗手行为，且效果持续，人们会理性地根据未来监测预期调整当前行为。
We test the predictions of the rational addiction model, reconceptualized as rational habit formation, in the context of handwashing in rural India. To track handwashing, we design soap dispensers with timed sensors. We test for rational habit formation by informing some households about a future change in the returns to daily handwashing. Monitoring and incentives raise handwashing contemporaneously, and effects persist well after they end. In addition, people are rational about this habit formation: when they anticipate future monitoring, they increase their current handwashing. Average child weight and height increase for all study arms given soap dispensers.