Science says even if someone paid you to go to the gym, you probably still wouldn't go
• A new study finds that the prospect of receiving an Amazon gift card didn't motivate people to visit the gym significantly more often.
• This is in line with previous research around effective motivation.
• The findings suggest that intrinsic motivation - working out because it's fun - might be more important.
I love going to the gym.
Actually, scratch that - I hate going to the gym. I hate being sweaty, and clumsy, and grunt-y - but I love being able to drop the sentence, "Yesterday in my 'total body conditioning' class …" in casual conversation without fibbing.
I guess you could say that, for me, the reward of gloating about working out outweighs the cruel and inhuman punishment of actually, you know, working out. So it makes sense that if you added another reward - say, cash - I'd work out more often than I do now.
Except - assuming I'm like many other Americans - that double-reward system wouldn't work so well. A new working paper by the National Bureau of Economic Research finds that paying people to hit the gym barely makes a difference in how often they go.
For the study, researchers divided about 800 new members at a Midwestern gym into four groups.
The first group received a $30 Amazon gift card after six weeks, unconditionally.
The second, third, and fourth groups were rewarded for going to the gym at least nine times in the first six weeks of membership - with a $30 Amazon gift card, a $60 Amazon gift card, and an item of their choosing from Amazon worth about $30, respectively.
As it turns out, in the first six weeks, participants who were promised rewards made just 0.14 more visits to the gym, on average, than the group who didn't get any reward. That's not a whole lot.
The study authors cite other research that found financial incentives do make a difference in how often people visit the gym - albeit a modest one. So at this point, it's hard to say how well money works (or doesn't) to motivate people to be healthy.
Still, the newest results recall an observation from behavioral economist Dan Ariely, who in his 2016 book, "Payoff," argued that financial incentives aren't the be-all-end-all when it comes to motivation.
Ariely and his colleagues conducted a study that found workers who received financial bonuses for their performance ultimately performed worse than workers who received compliments from their boss - or pizza. Ariely says that intrinsic motivation - i.e. doing a good job for the sake of doing a good job - can be even more powerful than cash.
In the case of exercise, Ariely previously told Business Insider that simply enjoying the workout can be the greatest motivation of all.
In other words, try to craft an exercise routine you enjoy and you'll be more likely to stick with it. And try not to rely on outside rewards, like earning cash or a gift certificate if you visit the gym often enough.
As for me, it's possible that the joy of subtly bragging might fade - or that all my friends might find me so intolerable that they eventually ditch me. In the long run, I'd be wiser to choose workouts that are fun in the moment.
- Colon cancer rates are rising in young people. If you have two symptoms you should get a colonoscopy, a GI oncologist says.
- I spent $2,000 for 7 nights in a 179-square-foot room on one of the world's largest cruise ships. Take a look inside my cabin.
- An Ambani disruption in OTT: At just ₹1 per day, you can now enjoy ad-free content on JioCinema
- Deloitte projects India's FY25 GDP growth at 6.6%
- Italian PM Meloni invites PM Modi to G7 Summit Outreach Session in June
- Markets rally for 6th day running on firm Asian peers; Tech Mahindra jumps over 12%
- Sustainable Waste Disposal
- RBI announces auction sale of Govt. securities of ₹32,000 crore
- JNK India IPO allotment date
- JioCinema New Plans
- Realme Narzo 70 Launched
- Apple Let Loose event
- Elon Musk Apology
- RIL cash flows
- Charlie Munger
- Feedbank IPO allotment
- Tata IPO allotment
- Most generous retirement plans
- Broadcom lays off
- Cibil Score vs Cibil Report
- Birla and Bajaj in top Richest
- Nestle Sept 2023 report
- India Equity Market