I really enjoyed this story on “Prospect Theory,” or the idea that loss aversion can be an effective motivator in goals related to health improvement like weight loss and smoking cessation:
“What we know about incentives is that people work a lot harder to avoid losing $10 than they will work to gain $10,” explains Ayres. “So something that’s framed as a loss is really effective at changing behavior.”
Related to that question I was asked sometime back: I wonder if a gym membership might be even more motivating if you received a daily email updating you on the wasted dollars you’d spent by not working out in the last ‘X’ days.
NPR: Loss Aversion — Money Loss, That Is
You could even go as far to say that the money lost not working out while using supplements now thats taking a hit cause they are expensive. Also the gains you fail to achieve when you miss just that one day and the progress you lose.
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