Effective Reminders

We study the effects of reminders on people’s behavior in investment activities characterized by up-front costs and delayed benefits, such as getting an education and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. We conduct a field experiment and show that simple weekly reminders induce users of a gym to substantially increase their gym attendance over an extensive period. Users’ response to reminders is immediate (within hours) and recurrent for any subsequent reminder, which can be explained by limited attention. We find some evidence of habit formation, leading to more frequent physical activity also after treatment, although with an effect smaller than during treatment. Simple reminders are thus a cost-effective policy tool.

Data are available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2016.2499.

This paper was accepted by Uri Gneezy, behavioral economics.