IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/expeco/v24y2021i4d10.1007_s10683-020-09693-5.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Experimental evidence of limited attention at the gym

Author

Listed:
  • Wolfgang Habla

    (ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research)

  • Paul Muller

    (VU University Amsterdam)

Abstract

In a randomized field experiment, we show that a low-cost intervention, weekly email reminders, increases the weekly exercising frequency of gym members by 13%, with the effect being larger for class training (19%) than for free training (11%). We find that nearly all types of individuals benefit from the reminders (e.g., students, nonstudents, women, men, new members, recurring members), and this effect persists in a three-month posttreatment period. Furthermore, the increase in class visits is partly driven by an increase in the number of bookings of gym classes and a slight decrease in the share of bookings that are canceled. Limited attention and habit formation can best explain these results. In contrast to the increase in gym attendance, we do not find any effect on the duration and renewal of membership contracts.

Suggested Citation

  • Wolfgang Habla & Paul Muller, 2021. "Experimental evidence of limited attention at the gym," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 24(4), pages 1156-1184, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:expeco:v:24:y:2021:i:4:d:10.1007_s10683-020-09693-5
    DOI: 10.1007/s10683-020-09693-5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10683-020-09693-5
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10683-020-09693-5?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Carrera, Mariana & Royer, Heather & Stehr, Mark & Sydnor, Justin, 2018. "Can financial incentives help people trying to establish new habits? Experimental evidence with new gym members," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 202-214.
    2. Heather Royer & Mark Stehr & Justin Sydnor, 2015. "Incentives, Commitments, and Habit Formation in Exercise: Evidence from a Field Experiment with Workers at a Fortune-500 Company," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 7(3), pages 51-84, July.
    3. Damgaard, Mette Trier & Gravert, Christina, 2018. "The hidden costs of nudging: Experimental evidence from reminders in fundraising," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 15-26.
    4. Matthew Rabin & Ted O'Donoghue, 1999. "Doing It Now or Later," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(1), pages 103-124, March.
    5. Hengchen Dai & Katherine L. Milkman & Jason Riis, 2014. "The Fresh Start Effect: Temporal Landmarks Motivate Aspirational Behavior," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(10), pages 2563-2582, October.
    6. Paola Manzini & Marco Mariotti, 2012. "Categorize Then Choose: Boundedly Rational Choice And Welfare," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 10(5), pages 1141-1165, October.
    7. Apesteguia, Jose & Funk, Patricia & Iriberri, Nagore, 2013. "Promoting rule compliance in daily-life: Evidence from a randomized field experiment in the public libraries of Barcelona," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 266-284.
    8. Gerlinde Fellner & Rupert Sausgruber & Christian Traxler, 2009. "Testing Enforcement Strategies in the Field: Legal Threat, Moral Appeal and Social Information," Working Papers 2009-23, Faculty of Economics and Statistics, Universität Innsbruck.
    9. Ted O'Donoghue & Matthew Rabin, 2001. "Choice and Procrastination," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 116(1), pages 121-160.
    10. Castleman, Benjamin L. & Page, Lindsay C., 2015. "Summer nudging: Can personalized text messages and peer mentor outreach increase college going among low-income high school graduates?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 144-160.
    11. Battigalli, Pierpaolo & Dufwenberg, Martin, 2009. "Dynamic psychological games," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 144(1), pages 1-35, January.
    12. Beatty, Timothy K.M. & Katare, Bhagyashree, 2018. "Low-cost approaches to increasing gym attendance," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 63-76.
    13. Condliffe, Simon & Işgın, Ebru & Fitzgerald, Brynne, 2017. "Get thee to the gym! A field experiment on improving exercise habits," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 23-32.
    14. Altmann, Steffen & Traxler, Christian, 2014. "Nudges at the dentist," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 19-38.
    15. Mariana Carrera & Heather Royer & Mark Stehr & Justin Sydnor, 2020. "The Structure of Health Incentives: Evidence from a Field Experiment," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(5), pages 1890-1908, May.
    16. Ted O'Donoghue & Matthew Rabin, 1999. "Incentives for Procrastinators," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 114(3), pages 769-816.
    17. Carrera, Mariana & Royer, Heather & Stehr, Mark & Sydnor, Justin & Taubinsky, Dmitry, 2018. "The limits of simple implementation intentions: Evidence from a field experiment on making plans to exercise," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 95-104.
    18. Oliver Himmler & Robert Jäckle & Philipp Weinschenk, 2019. "Soft Commitments, Reminders, and Academic Performance," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 11(2), pages 114-142, April.
    19. Saurabh Bhargava & Dayanand Manoli, 2015. "Psychological Frictions and the Incomplete Take-Up of Social Benefits: Evidence from an IRS Field Experiment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(11), pages 3489-3529, November.
    20. Dean Karlan & Margaret McConnell & Sendhil Mullainathan & Jonathan Zinman, 2016. "Getting to the Top of Mind: How Reminders Increase Saving," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 62(12), pages 3393-3411, December.
    21. Dan Acland & Matthew R. Levy, 2015. "Naiveté, Projection Bias, and Habit Formation in Gym Attendance," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 61(1), pages 146-160, January.
    22. John Beshears & Katherine L. Milkman & Joshua Schwartzstein, 2016. "Beyond Beta-Delta: The Emerging Economics of Personal Plans," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(5), pages 430-434, May.
    23. Acland, Dan & Levy, Matthew R., 2015. "Naiveté, projection bias, and habit formation in gym attendance," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 66147, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    24. Axel Sonntag & Daniel John Zizzo, 2015. "On Reminder Effects, Drop-Outs and Dominance: Evidence from an Online Experiment on Charitable Giving," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(8), pages 1-17, August.
    25. Samuelson, William & Zeckhauser, Richard, 1988. "Status Quo Bias in Decision Making," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 1(1), pages 7-59, March.
    26. Gary Charness & Uri Gneezy, 2009. "Incentives to Exercise," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 77(3), pages 909-931, May.
    27. Garon, Jean-Denis & Masse, Alix & Michaud, Pierre-Carl, 2015. "Health club attendance, expectations and self-control," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 364-374.
    28. Keith Marzilli Ericson, 2017. "On the Interaction of Memory and Procrastination: Implications for Reminders, Deadlines, and Empirical Estimation," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 15(3), pages 692-719.
    29. Hunt Allcott & Todd Rogers, 2014. "The Short-Run and Long-Run Effects of Behavioral Interventions: Experimental Evidence from Energy Conservation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(10), pages 3003-3037, October.
    30. Gerlinde Fellner & Rupert Sausgruber & Christian Traxler, 2013. "Testing Enforcement Strategies In The Field: Threat, Moral Appeal And Social Information," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 11(3), pages 634-660, June.
    31. Stefano DellaVigna & Ulrike Malmendier, 2006. "Paying Not to Go to the Gym," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(3), pages 694-719, June.
    32. Dean, Mark & Kıbrıs, Özgür & Masatlioglu, Yusufcan, 2017. "Limited attention and status quo bias," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 169(C), pages 93-127.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Gustafson, Christopher R., 2023. "Comparing the impact of targeted subsidies and health prompts on choice process variables and food choice: The case of dietary fiber," Staff Papers 330132, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Department of Agricultural Economics.
    2. Gessner, Johannes & Habla, Wolfgang & Wagner, Ulrich J., 2023. "Can social comparisons and moral appeals increase public transport ridership and decrease car use?," ZEW Discussion Papers 23-003, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    3. Diarmaid Ó Ceallaigh & Kirsten I.M. Rohde & Hans van Kippersluis, 2024. "Skipping your workout, again? Measuring and understanding time inconsistency in physical activity," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 24-028/V, Tinbergen Institute.
    4. Johannes Gessner & Wolfgang Habla & Ulrich J. Wagner, 2023. "Can Social Comparisons and Moral Appeals Induce a Modal Shift Towards Low-Emission Transport Modes?," CRC TR 224 Discussion Paper Series crctr224_2023_451, University of Bonn and University of Mannheim, Germany.
    5. Davide Carpentiere & Angelo Petralia, 2023. "Identification of consideration sets from choice data," Papers 2302.00978, arXiv.org, revised Mar 2024.
    6. Johannes Gessner & Wolfgang Habla & Ulrich J. Wagner, 2023. "Can Social Comparisons and Moral Appeals Induce a Modal Shift Towards Low-Emission Transport Modes?," CRC TR 224 Discussion Paper Series crctr224_2023_451v2, University of Bonn and University of Mannheim, Germany.
    7. Alt, Marius, 2024. "Better us later than me now —," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    8. Gustafson, Christopher R., 2023. "Comparing the impact of subsidies and health prompts on choice process variables and food choice: The case of dietary fiber," OSF Preprints u4v5c, Center for Open Science.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Muller, Paul & Habla, Wolfgang, 2018. "Experimental and non-experimental evidence on limited attention and present bias at the gym," Working Papers in Economics 743, University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics.
    2. Essl, Andrea & Steffen, Angela & Staehle, Martin, 2021. "Choose to reuse! The effect of action-close reminders on pro-environmental behavior," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    3. Raphael Brade & Oliver Himmler & Robert Jaeckle & Philipp Weinschenk, 2024. "Helping Students to Succeed – The Long-Term Effects of Soft Commitments and Reminders," CESifo Working Paper Series 11001, CESifo.
    4. Katare, Bhagyashree, 2021. "Do low-cost economic incentives motivate healthy behavior?," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 41(C).
    5. Giacomo Calzolari & Mattia Nardotto, 2017. "Effective Reminders," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 63(9), pages 2915-2932, September.
    6. Diarmaid Ó Ceallaigh & Kirsten I.M. Rohde & Hans van Kippersluis, 2024. "Skipping your workout, again? Measuring and understanding time inconsistency in physical activity," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 24-028/V, Tinbergen Institute.
    7. Beshears, John & Kosowsky, Harry, 2020. "Nudging: Progress to date and future directions," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 161(S), pages 3-19.
    8. Arad, Ayala & Gneezy, Uri & Mograbi, Eli, 2023. "Intermittent incentives to encourage exercising in the long run," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 205(C), pages 560-573.
    9. Altmann, Steffen & Grunewald, Andreas & Radbruch, Jonas, 2019. "Passive Choices and Cognitive Spillovers," IZA Discussion Papers 12337, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Carrera, Mariana & Royer, Heather & Stehr, Mark & Sydnor, Justin, 2018. "Can financial incentives help people trying to establish new habits? Experimental evidence with new gym members," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 202-214.
    11. Kirgios, Erika L. & Mandel, Graelin H. & Park, Yeji & Milkman, Katherine L. & Gromet, Dena M. & Kay, Joseph S. & Duckworth, Angela L., 2020. "Teaching temptation bundling to boost exercise: A field experiment," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 161(S), pages 20-35.
    12. C. Yiwei Zhang & Jeffrey Hemmeter & Judd B. Kessler & Robert D. Metcalfe & Robert Weathers, 2023. "Nudging Timely Wage Reporting: Field Experimental Evidence from the U.S. Supplemental Security Income Program," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 69(3), pages 1341-1353, March.
    13. Homonoff, Tatiana & Willage, Barton & Willén, Alexander, 2020. "Rebates as incentives: The effects of a gym membership reimbursement program," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    14. Malodia, Suresh & Kaur, Puneet & Ractham, Peter & Sakashita, Mototaka & Dhir, Amandeep, 2022. "Why do people avoid and postpone the use of voice assistants for transactional purposes? A perspective from decision avoidance theory," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 605-618.
    15. Chen‐Nan Liao & Ying‐Ju Chen, 2021. "Design of Long‐Term Conditional Cash Transfer Program to Encourage Healthy Habits," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 30(11), pages 3987-4003, November.
    16. Erin T. Bronchetti & Judd B. Kessler & Ellen B. Magenheim & Dmitry Taubinsky & Eric Zwick, 2023. "Is Attention Produced Optimally? Theory and Evidence From Experiments With Bandwidth Enhancements," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 91(2), pages 669-707, March.
    17. Steffen Altmann & Christian Traxler & Philipp Weinschenk, 2022. "Deadlines and Memory Limitations," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(9), pages 6733-6750, September.
    18. Daniel Mochon & Janet Schwartz & Josiase Maroba & Deepak Patel & Dan Ariely, 2017. "Gain Without Pain: The Extended Effects of a Behavioral Health Intervention," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 63(1), pages 58-72, January.
    19. Steffen Altmann & Christian Traxler & Philipp Weinschenk, 2017. "Deadlines and Cognitive Limitations," CESifo Working Paper Series 6761, CESifo.
    20. Condliffe, Simon & Işgın, Ebru & Fitzgerald, Brynne, 2017. "Get thee to the gym! A field experiment on improving exercise habits," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 23-32.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Health behavior; Randomized experiment; Reminders; Nudging; Habit formation; Limited attention;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C93 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Field Experiments
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:expeco:v:24:y:2021:i:4:d:10.1007_s10683-020-09693-5. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.