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Healthier by precommitment.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Schwartz, J; Mochon, D; Wyper, L; Maroba, J; Patel, D; Ariely, D
Published in: Psychological science
February 2014

We tested a voluntary self-control commitment device to help grocery shoppers make healthier food purchases. Participants, who were already enrolled in a large-scale incentive program that discounts the price of eligible groceries by 25%, were offered the chance to put their discount on the line. Agreeing households pledged that they would increase their purchases of healthy food by 5 percentage points above their household baseline for each of 6 months. If they reached that goal, their discount was awarded as usual; otherwise, their discount was forfeited for that month. Thirty-six percent of households that were offered the binding commitment agreed; they subsequently showed an average 3.5-percentage-point increase in healthy grocery items purchased in each of the 6 months; households that declined the commitment and control-group households that were given a hypothetical option to precommit did not show such an increase. These results suggest that self-aware consumers will seize opportunities to create restrictive choice environments for themselves, even at some risk of financial loss.

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Published In

Psychological science

DOI

EISSN

1467-9280

ISSN

0956-7976

Publication Date

February 2014

Volume

25

Issue

2

Start / End Page

538 / 546

Related Subject Headings

  • Reward
  • Humans
  • Health Behavior
  • Experimental Psychology
  • Consumer Behavior
  • Choice Behavior
  • Adult
  • 52 Psychology
  • 1702 Cognitive Sciences
  • 1701 Psychology
 

Citation

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Schwartz, J., Mochon, D., Wyper, L., Maroba, J., Patel, D., & Ariely, D. (2014). Healthier by precommitment. Psychological Science, 25(2), 538–546. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797613510950
Schwartz, Janet, Daniel Mochon, Lauren Wyper, Josiase Maroba, Deepak Patel, and Dan Ariely. “Healthier by precommitment.Psychological Science 25, no. 2 (February 2014): 538–46. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797613510950.
Schwartz J, Mochon D, Wyper L, Maroba J, Patel D, Ariely D. Healthier by precommitment. Psychological science. 2014 Feb;25(2):538–46.
Schwartz, Janet, et al. “Healthier by precommitment.Psychological Science, vol. 25, no. 2, Feb. 2014, pp. 538–46. Epmc, doi:10.1177/0956797613510950.
Schwartz J, Mochon D, Wyper L, Maroba J, Patel D, Ariely D. Healthier by precommitment. Psychological science. 2014 Feb;25(2):538–546.
Journal cover image

Published In

Psychological science

DOI

EISSN

1467-9280

ISSN

0956-7976

Publication Date

February 2014

Volume

25

Issue

2

Start / End Page

538 / 546

Related Subject Headings

  • Reward
  • Humans
  • Health Behavior
  • Experimental Psychology
  • Consumer Behavior
  • Choice Behavior
  • Adult
  • 52 Psychology
  • 1702 Cognitive Sciences
  • 1701 Psychology