Attention to Incentives

In this experiment, the investigators will test the effectiveness of a two week 20x incentive multiplier on the investigators' corporate partner's users who are (a) not notified about the incentives in advance, and (b) notified about the incentives and their purpose. The investigators will test which group shows the largest boost in walking during the two week intervention and the most lasting behavior change.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Informed and Uninformed Incentives
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Uninformed; Behavioral: Informed

Detailed Description

Summary:

In this experiment, the investigators will test the effectiveness of a two week 20x incentive multiplier on AchieveMint users who are (a) not notified about the incentives in advance, and (b) notified about the incentives and their purpose. The investigators will test which group shows the largest boost in walking during the two week intervention and the most lasting behavior change.

Information:

The experimental conditions will vary the type and amount of information about incentives as follows:

• Condition 1 - Uninformed: Users will receive 20x their usual incentives for two weeks, but will receive no emails informing them about the incentive program. (They may find out about incentives through the Achievemint platform.)
• Condition 2 - Informed about Incentives and Purpose: Users will receive 20x their usual incentives for two weeks, and they will receive emails informing them about the incentives (one announcement before the incentives begin, and one email every two days reminding them about the overall incentive program). These emails will contain information about the incentives and the purpose of the incentives. Condition 2 will most closely resemble the "constant" condition in the previous experiment. Roughly the same initial announcement email will go out. The reminder emails sent every two days, however, will include more information about the overall program incentives to maximize the number of participants who learn about the incentive program at some point.

Mock-ups of the email announcements and reminders are shown below.

Incentives:

The investigators' incentives will consist of multipliers for points offered via Achievemint. Since the investigators found in the investigators' last experiment that the constant incentives were the most successful, the investigators will offer these incentives to all treated participants: 20x multipliers for 14 days.

Other details:

The other details of the experiment will be the same as the previous experiment:

• Length of incentives: the investigators will offer incentives for 14 days.
• Post-intervention observation: the investigators will observe all treatment groups for at least 30 days after the intervention.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 2055
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Pennsylvania
    • Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, 19104
      • University of Pennsylvania

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 75 years (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

-

Exclusion Criteria:

• top 30 percentiles of active walkers
• To the extent possible, given the investigators' target sample size, the investigators will exclude users who were enrolled in the investigators' previous experiment.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Single

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Uninformed; Condition 1	Behavioral: Uninformed; Users will receive 20x their usual incentives for two weeks, but will either receive no emails informing them about the incentive program.
Experimental: Informed about Incentives and Purpose; Condition 2	Behavioral: Informed; Users will receive 20x their usual incentives for two weeks, and they will receive emails informing them about the incentives (one announcement before the incentives begin, and one email every two days reminding them about the overall incentive program). These emails will contain information about the incentives and the purpose of the incentives. The reminder emails sent every two days, however, will include more information about the overall program incentives to maximize the number of participants who learn about the incentive program at some point.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Time Frame
Number of steps taken	30 days

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Pennsylvania
• Collaborators: Harvard University
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Katherine L. Milkman, Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania; Principal Investigator: Bradford Tuckfield, University of Pennsylvania; Principal Investigator: Leslie K. John, Ph.D., HBS; Principal Investigator: Francesco Gino, Ph.D., HBS

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: March 1, 2015
• Primary Completion (Actual): May 1, 2015

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: April 2, 2015
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 7, 2015
• First Posted (Estimate): April 8, 2015

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimate): October 12, 2015
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: October 7, 2015
• Last Verified: July 1, 2015

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: information; incentives
• Other Study ID Numbers: 819369