Julianne Sloane

12/8/14
Behavior Economics
As 2014 comes to a close we are nearing the New Year, and what comes with
this- New Years Resolutions. It seems every year one of the most frequently made
resolutions is one to get in shape. 2015 will be no exception and as any regular
gym-goer knows January brings a huge spike in gym visits often experiencing much
higher crowds throughout the month which quickly subside by February. People are
aware that exercise improves overall health which can lead to longer lives but why
is it that every year this particular New Years Resolution cant seem to stick? First of
all humans have a tendency towards a present bias which is favoring gratification
now at the expense of future gratification. While a New Years Resolution might
briefly motivate someone to start going to the gym they will quickly revert back to
old habits putting off the unpleasant task of working out even though they are
aware it will yield future benefits. This lack of continue to visit the gym is also due
to a popular human trait of overconfidence about future self-control or about future
efficiency. Stefano Della Vigna and Ulrike Malmendiers article Paying Not to Go to
the Gym demonstrates this problem through discussion of consumers often
choosing a gym contract which is suboptimal given their attendance frequency and
consistently assuming they will visit the gym more often than actually occurs. This
new behavioral economic intervention will seek to utilize January increased gym
attendance as a window of opportunity to launch a new program aimed to reduce
adult and child obesity and improve mental health.
Humans have prosocial motivations which are an internally focused desire for
approval and an externally focused desire to help others. With this in mind during
January, gyms would offer discounted rates on membership for people who were
willing to be partnered with an underprivileged youth from the community to join a
sports team or to jointly attend a work out class. These partnerships would build the
gyms image in the community as a philanthropic organization, aid disadvantaged
young people by building a relationship to an adult who is not a parent or teacher
and would save people money on their gym memberships and improve their mental
and physical health. The discount on savings for gym membership and subsidies of
children attending fitness classes etc. would be funded through corporate
sponsorships. Below is a breakdown of how each of the various stake holders
benefit in this partnership.
Participants (adults):

Improved fitness: Partnerships adds accountability to continuing to visit the

gym/being active. More likely to attend pre-arranged classes/games not
wanting to disappoint child.
Improved mental health: A report by PBS discusses that greater generosity
can be linked to a higher well-being in life through triggering chemical
reactions in the brain and body that increase pleasure and reduce stress,
increase personal sense of agency and through expanding the number and
density of social network ties. 1

1 Smith, Christian, and Hilary Davidson. "Americans Are More Willing to Be Generous with Their
Bodies than Their Money." PBS. PBS, 10 Sept. 2014. Web. 08 Dec. 2014.

Julianne Sloane
12/8/14
Behavior Economics

Save money on gym membership.

Participants (teenagers):

Interaction with adults who are not their teacher/parents.

Creates positive athletic experiences encouraging healthy habits later in
life/potential desire to help other teens by participating in the program as
adults.
Subsidized membership to gym/fitness programs that otherwise would not be
able to afford.

Gym:

Added visibility in the community and positive image as philanthropic gym.

Increased membership from people wanting to participate in the program.

Corporations (acting as corporate sponsors):

Encourages employees to be healthy. Increased physical and mental health

for employees which would lead to increased productivity for company.
(Happy/healthy people produce more)
Positive reputation in the community.
Save money on health insurance premiums due to healthier work force.

As this program is targeted towards underprivileged youth one of its main

goals is to fight child obesity through enabling youth to participate in enjoyable gym
courses/friendly sports competition etc. which they ordinarily would not be able to
afford. A secondary element to the success to this program is to ensure that the
children feel like they were able to freely and consciously choose to participate in
this program, the concept of self-attribution. This would be achieved by offering
incentives of things kids would want such as
tickets to baseball games, field days at local parks,
concert tickets etc. via a raffle if they successfully
completed the program. (Also funded through
corporate partnerships) Heavy marketing would be
required initially on the part of gyms and
sponsoring companies however once the program
launched the network effect would likely
encourage members of a participants peer group
to also participate. The program would be initiated
through partnerships with non-profit organizations
such as The Boys and Girls Club or with local high
schools and middle schools. Students and Gym
members would sign up for specific
activity/indicate which times there are available
then they would be matched based on availability/activity preference. The activities
included would be:

Julianne Sloane
12/8/14
Behavior Economics
1. Joining gym sponsored soccer, basketball, football, volleyball team etc. In this
case teams would be comprised of middle school/high school aged students
and their gym partners. Participants would need to abide by set schedule to
not miss games.
2. Taking fitness classes together. Signing up for fitness classes such as yoga,
Zumba or spin and meeting with your gym partner during these class
sessions.
When we were young we loved running around however as we grow older it
becomes harder to remember the basic joy we used to find through just moving
around. Despite know that exercise is good for us the process of getting back
into shape can be painful and is one humans tend to push off. This intervention
would be effective because not only does it increase physical activity for both
children and adults it also cultivates cross generation relationships outside of
ones family and makes people happy giving them the sense that they are giving
back to the community through engaging with youth. As adults working with
middle/high school aged kids can help revitalize an energy we used to have
reminding people that being healthy can be fun. For the kids it is an opportunity
to try new activities that ordinarily they would not have the resources to try and
also builds social skills meeting adults in a new context. Many people say they
want to volunteer but feel they do not have the time, this helps solve that
problem because the time they spend with this youth will also be helping them
stay fit. There are limitations to this intervention as it relies on willingness of
both adults and kids to participate however with the proper incentives and
marketing I believe that will not be a problem. Secondly there would be some
legal framework that would need to be put in place considering it would be
working with minors however as gyms and parks are public spaces that will help
solve that problem. Even though there is an initial cost for starting this program
the future savings of improved health for both adult and teenager participants is
likely to surpass that of the initial investment. Secondly the increased
productivity for companies due to improvements in mental and physical health
of their employees will also balance out a large portion of investments in
corporate sponsorships. Overall I believe this program will be highly effective at
decreasing adult and child obesity, improving mental health and will work as a
tool against humans predictively irrational behavior of overconfidence about
future self-control or about future efficiency by adding accountability for them to
go to the gym. For 2015 New Years Resolution will stick and this will be the year
you get into shape.