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Published on: February 22, 2022
Put a bet on it: Can self-funded commitment contracts curb fitness procrastination?
Devon Spika1, Linnea Wickström Östervall2, Ulf Gerdtham3
1Department of Economics, School of Economics and Management, Lund University, Scheelevägen 15B, 223 63, Lund, Sweden; Department of Economics, University of Zurich, Schönberggasse 1, 8001 Zürich, Switzerland.
None:
We investigate the use of a highly scalable intervention to help individuals achieve their physical activity goals: self-funded commitment contracts. Using a randomised experiment, we compare the effect of soft (non-incentivised) and hard (incentivised) contracts among 1629 members of a gym in Stockholm, Sweden. We find a significant positive impact of being offered a hard contract on monthly visits to the gym and the probability of meeting one's contract goal. Relative to the control group, being offered a hard contract significantly increases gym visits by 21%, while being offered a soft contract leads to an 8% increase.
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