Paying people to eat or not to eat? Carryover effects of monetary incentives on eating behaviour

Abstract

There is no evidence comparing head-to-head the effects of monetary incentives to act and to abstain from acting on behaviour. We present an experiment, conducted between June and September 2012, that directly compares the effects of those two different monetary incentive schemes on eating behaviour: we evaluate incentives to eat against incentives not to eat. A large number of participants (n = 353) had bowls of sweets next to them while they watched different videos over two experimental sessions that were two days apart. Sweets eating was monitored and monetary incentives to eat or not to eat were introduced during one of the videos for participants randomly allocated to these conditions. Our results show that, while both types of incentives were effective in changing sweets-eating behaviour when they were in place, only incentives not to eat had significant carryover effects after they were removed. Those effects were still significant two days after the monetary incentives had been eliminated. We also present some additional results on personality and health-related variables that shed further light on these effects. Overall, our study shows that incentives not to eat can be more effective in producing carryover effects on behaviour in domains like the one explored here.

What Is Really Behavioral in Behavioral Health Policy? And Does It Work?

“…Concerning the effect of the signpost model in particular, there is some evidence of local substitution effects: consumers tend to avoid really bad foods, switching from red to amber lights rather than choosing genuinely healthy foods (green light) (Fox et al 2002). This is consistent with the main idea that bad and negative messages are generally more salient and easier to retain than good and positive messages (Baumeister et al 2001;Dolan et al 2013). The evidence on local substitutions effects is also consistent with the macro observation that consumers tend to switch to healthier options within the same categories, but they rarely radically alter the overall structure of their diet (Kessler 2009).…”

“…This is consistent with the main idea what 'bad' and negative messages are generally more salient and easier to retain than 'good', positive messages (Baumeister et al, 2001;Dolan, Galizzi, and Navarro-Martinez, 2013). The evidence on local substitutions effects' is also consistent with the 'macro' observation that consumers tend to switch to healthier options within the same categories, but they rarely radically alter the overall structure of their diet (Kessler, 2009).…”

Experimental Methods and Behavioral Insights in Health Economics: Estimating Risk and Time Preferences in Health

“…Other types of experiments beyond lab, artefactual field, frame field, and natural field experiments, are virtual experiments that combine controlled experiments with virtual reality settings (Fiore, Harrison, Hughes and Rutström, 2009); and lab-field experiments that consist of a first-stage intervention under controlled conditions (in the lab) linked to a naturalistic situation (in the field) where subjects are not aware that their behavior is observed. Lab-field experiments have been used to look at the unintended "behavioral spillover" effects of health incentives (Dolan and Galizzi, 2014b;Dolan, Galizzi and Navarro-Martinez, 2015).…”

health econometrics

“…Other types of experiments beyond lab, artefactual field, framed field, and natural field experiments are virtual experiments that combine controlled experiments with virtual reality settings (Fiore, Harrison, Hughes, & Rutstro¨m, 2009) and lab-field experiments that consist of a first-stage intervention under controlled conditions (in the lab) linked to a naturalistic situation (in the field) where subjects are not aware that their behavior is observed. Lab-field experiments have been used to look at the unintended "behavioral spillover" effects of health incentives (Dolan & Galizzi, 2014bDolan, Galizzi, & Navarro-Martinez, 2015). While not yet applied to health economics contexts, virtual experiments are a promising approach to make trade-offs more salient and vivid in health decision-making.…”