| By: |
van der Swaluw, Koen (Tilburg University, Center For Economic Research);
Lambooij, Mattijs S;
Mathijssen, Jolanda (Tilburg University, Center For Economic Research);
Zeelenberg, Marcel (Tilburg University, Center For Economic Research);
Polder, Johan (Tilburg University, Center For Economic Research);
Prast, Henriette (Tilburg University, Center For Economic Research) |
| Abstract: |
Many people aim to change their lifestyle, but have trouble acting on their
intentions. Behavioral economic incentives and related emotions can support
commitment to personal health goals, but the related emotions remain
unexplored. In a regret lottery, winners who do not attain their health goals
do not get their prize but receive feedback on what their forgone earnings
would have been. This counterfactual feedback should provoke anticipated
regret and increase commitment to health goals. We explored which emotions
were actually expected upon missing out on a prize due to unsuccessful weight
loss and which incentive-characteristics influence their likelihood and
intensity. Participants reported their expected emotional response after
missing out on a prize in one of 12 randomly presented incentive-scenarios,
which varied in incentive type, incentive size and deadline distance.
Participants primarily reported feeling disappointment, followed by regret.
Regret was expected most when losing a lottery prize (vs. a fixed incentive)
and intensified with prize size. Multiple features of the participant and the
lottery incentive increase the occurrence and intensity of regret. As such,
our findings can be helpful in designing behavioral economic incentives that
leverage emotions to support health behavior change. |
| Keywords: |
incentives; emotions; behavioral economics; health behavior; weight loss |
| JEL: |
D91 I12 |
| Date: |
2018 |
| URL: |
http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tiu:tiucen:4f800df8-c640-4522-b175-2629992336fd&r=isf |