SL commitment devices and Implementation intentions Flashcards
What is implementation intention? Give an example
Implementation Intention: A behavioral strategy where individuals create a specific, detailed plan that links a future situation (a time, place, or context) to a desired action. Helps bridge the gap between intentions and actual behavior.
If x, then x.
Example:
Jenna’s goal is to exercise more regularly. Her implementation intention is: “If it’s 7 AM on Monday, Wednesday, or Friday, then I will go for a 30-minute run around the park.” This statement links a specific situation with a specific behavior. It turns the vague goal of “exercising more” into a concrete plan that’s easier to follow through on.
What is commitment device? Give an example
Commitment Device: a type of long-term “plan-making” mechanism where you set up a plan with a restriction to follow in the future. Essentially you mentally “lock” yourself into following a plan of action that you might not want to do, but which you know is good for yourself.
Example:
Thomas wants to quit smoking. A commitment device is that Thomas signs a contract with a friend, agreeing to pay $100 if they smoke a cigarette in the next month. The financial penalty acts as a commitment device, leveraging loss aversion to increase the likelihood that Thomas will stick to their goal. The threat of losing money creates additional motivation to avoid smoking.
Where are implementation intentions and commitment in the refine matrix?
Under encourage.
What biases & heuristics does Implementation Intention address?
Implementation Intention addresses these biases & heuristics:
● Present Bias
● Procrastination
● Planning Fallacy
What are the mechanisms related to this nudge?
● Loss Aversion
When Commitment Fails – Evidence from a Field Experiment in the Philipines, by ANETT JOHN
a) Summarize the research question and the experimental design of the main study in this paper.
Question a)
Research Question:
The central question is whether individuals possess sufficient self-awareness to choose commitment devices that enhance their welfare, or if misjudgments in selecting these devices can lead to adverse outcomes, such as financial losses or reduced well-being.
Research design:
The authors want to encourage individuals to save more. The purpose is also to look into if people are good at choosing the “right” commitment.
A field experiment in the Philippines tested two types of savings accounts as commitment devices (nudges).
Nudge 1: The first was an installment-savings commitment account (IS), which allowed for savings in fixed installment structure.
● Received financial consultation
● Offered fixed-installment structure
account
- Set amount of installment, as
decided by participants
- Weekly or bi-weekly payment
- Default if 3 installments behind
- Fee payment upon default
Nudge 2: The second was a withdrawal-restriction account (WR), which restricted withdrawal until the set amount or time was reached.
● Received financial consultation
● Offered a restricted saving withdrawals account
- Cannot withdraw until the saving reach the goal amount or goal date
Control group received financial consultation.
Both IS and WR increased the average balances in the bank, especially the IS relative to the control group. But 55% of IS clients failed to fullfill their savings contracts and had to up out incurring penalties, whereas 79% of WR clients made no further deposits after the opening balance, which we would have wanted to see.
So what we were looking for, that people are bad at setting commitment is found in data.
“Using implementation intentions prompts to enhance influenza vaccination rates” by Milkman et al 2011
a) Summarize the research question and the experimental design of the main study in this paper.
b) Read table 1 (figure 8) and explain the results.
Question a)
Research question:
We evaluate the results of a field experiment designed to measure the effect of prompts to form “implementation intentions” on realized behavioral outcomes.
Can it address low compliance issue resulted from postponing or forgetfulness?
Design:
A randomized trial studied how different planning prompts (date plan and time plan) influenced flu vaccination rates. Participants was chosen among employees at a large Midwestern utility company in the United States. Employees at a large firm were randomly assigned to receive one of three mailings about workplace vaccination clinics. The outcome of interest was influenza vaccination receipt.
Treatment (Nudge)
- Date Plan Condition. The date plan prompts participants to fill out the date they want to receive the vaccine.
- Time Plan condition. Similarly, the time plan prompts participants to fill out the time in addition to the date.
- control as normal free vaccination without any commitment.
Quesiton b)
Resulst
control group, 33.1% vaccinated.
Data plan condition, 35.6% vaccinated, but nonsignificant increase of 2.4 percentage point relative to the control group.
Time pan condition 37.1% vaccinated, significant increase of 4 percentage point relative to the control group.
Both prompts increased vaccination rates, with the time plan showing slightly higher efficacy, particularly when vaccination clinics were available for a shorter period of time.
What is the difference between implementation incentives and commitment?
In implementation incentives you schedule and wish to do something, where in commitment you lock yourself to doing that thing by introducing restrictions.
The Limits of Simple Implementation Intentions: Evidence from a
Field Experiment on Making Plans to Exercise, by Carrera et al 2018
a) Summarize the research question and the experimental design of the main study in this paper.
b) Read figure 9 and explain the results.
Question a)
Research question:
We investigate the effect of a simple scalable planning intervention on a repeated behavior using a randomized design involving 877 subjects at
a private gym.
motivated by, other articles on recent large-scale randomized experiments find that helping people form implementation
intentions by asking when and where they plan to act increases one-time actions, such as
vaccinations, preventative screenings and voting
Design:
A field experiment conducted in a midwestern city in the USA that tested the efficacy of prompts as a commitment device for future gym attendance. Randomly selected number of gym attenders divided into two groups.
Group 1: control group - asked about prior 2 weeks attendance.
Group 2: treatment group - prompt for data and time (implementation nudge). Participants in the treatment group had to select the days and times they planned to go to the gym in the following two weeks.
Question b)
Results:
We find in contrast to recent studies, that the planning intervention did not have a positive effect on behavior. We observe a tightly estimated
null effect even though the majority of subjects believed that planning is helpful and despite clear
evidence that they engaged with the planning process. This is seen by the fraction of attendance falling to a lower level than the control group during the 14 days period.
Why might the nudges not work?
Main reason:
Repeated action setting - Various studies that tried using this type of nudge to change actions that people do frequently show little to no effect of the nudge.
Why?
- Hard to change strong habits (also, people choose their gym days depending on their weekly schedule and what is more convenient to them. Might be hard to fit an extra day)
- People are overly optimistic particularly in activities that imply a “How often do you plan to…?” question - leads to underestimation of the cost of commitment
- Planning might just reduce the probability of acting at an unplanned time and not actually increase the probability of acting at a specific time
- People have many opportunities to do it and may get lazy more easily and end up postponing it - present bias
Another major possible reason:
Agents’ degree of sophistication that can lead to underestimation of the cost of commitment.
How?
- If an agent is sophisticated, they will have a good understanding of their degree of time inconsistency and will most likely not select a contract incompatible with their incentive constraint. Either they know they’ll be able to do it given that specific set of constraints or they’ll simply avoid commitment.
- Conversely, partial hyperbolic discounter sophisticates will not have a good understanding of their degrees of time inconsistency and will probably select a weak contract, and, in this case, immediately default on their savings plan.
- Sophisticated agents will also know better what costs they’re willing to incur.
Some other possible reasons in the case of the Philippine saving study:
1) People just didn’t know better
They were learning how hard saving that specific amount was as time went by.
2) Limited attention bias and transaction costs
People might just have forgotten about depositing the money at the right time (they were obligated to do it physically) and might also have overlooked how much it would cost them to physically go to the bank; these costs could be too high for them to be willing to incur.
- Being to busy to go to the bank was a commonly stated reason for people who declined the IS product
Tips for implementation of commitment devices and implementation intentions
● Tailoring the nudge to the context
○ The more specific the implementation intention (e.g., specifying when and where an action will occur), the more likely it
is to lead to behavior change.
● Consider behavioral biases
○ Commitment devices are especially useful for people who struggle with present bias, where immediate temptations undermine long-term goals.
○ For effective implementation, designers should ensure the commitment penalty is sufficiently motivating but not overly harsh.
● Tailored to behavior type
○ Implementation intentions are more effective for one-time actions (e.g., vaccinations, voting) than for repeated
behaviors (e.g., regular exercise)
● Monitor and adapt the design
○ One major challenge is that many participants fail to follow through on their commitments
■ Periodic reminders, follow-up prompts, or adjustable goals can help sustain long-term commitment.
