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  • November 2012
  • Article
  • Preventive Medicine

Empirical Observations on Longer-term Use of Incentives for Weight Loss

By: Leslie K. John, George Loewenstein and Kevin Volpp
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Abstract

Behavioral economic-based interventions are emerging as powerful tools to help individuals accomplish their own goals, including weight loss. Deposit contract incentive systems give participants the opportunity to put their money down toward losing weight, which they forfeit if they fail to lose weight; lottery incentive systems enable participants to win money if they attain weight loss goals. In this paper, we pool data from two prior studies to examine a variety of issues that unpublished data from those studies allow us to address. First, examining data from the deposit contract treatments in greater depth, we investigate factors affecting deposit frequency and size and discuss possible ways of increasing deposits. Next, we compare the effectiveness of both deposit contract and lottery interventions as a function of participant demographic characteristics. These observations may help to guide the design of future, longer-term, behavioral economic-based interventions.

Keywords

Weight Loss; Obesity; Behavioral Economics; Intervention; Behavior; Motivation and Incentives

Citation

John, Leslie K., George Loewenstein, and Kevin Volpp. "Empirical Observations on Longer-term Use of Incentives for Weight Loss." Preventive Medicine 55, Supplement 1 (November 2012): S68–S74.
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About The Author

Leslie K. John

Negotiation, Organizations & Markets
→More Publications

More from the Authors

    • November 2022
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    Opportunity Neglect: An Aversion to Low-probability Gains

    By: Emily Prinsloo, Kate Barasz, Leslie K. John and Michael I. Norton
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    The Bulletproof Glass Effect: Unintended Consequences of Privacy Notices

    By: Aaron R. Brough, David A. Norton, Shannon L. Sciarappa and Leslie K. John
    • March 2022
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    When Less Is More: Consumers Prefer Brands that Donate More in Relative versus Absolute Terms

    By: Elizabeth A. Keenan, Anne V. Wilson and Leslie K. John
More from the Authors
  • Opportunity Neglect: An Aversion to Low-probability Gains By: Emily Prinsloo, Kate Barasz, Leslie K. John and Michael I. Norton
  • The Bulletproof Glass Effect: Unintended Consequences of Privacy Notices By: Aaron R. Brough, David A. Norton, Shannon L. Sciarappa and Leslie K. John
  • When Less Is More: Consumers Prefer Brands that Donate More in Relative versus Absolute Terms By: Elizabeth A. Keenan, Anne V. Wilson and Leslie K. John
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