“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.”
[via NPR]
The scale definitely matters. For example, I had a gym membership that I was paying $30/month and with that in mind, I made a strong effort early on to go, so I could get my money’s worth. After a while, I just stopped going (got too busy) and the $30 went down the drain for several months before I came to my senses and cancelled it. I’ve always hear from people that getting an expensive gym membership is a strong motivator for you to go all the time. But, since I take public transportation every week day and actually use my legs, I don’t really need a gym membership.
When I was going to college, I kept in mind that every lecture I missed was probably a couple of hundred dollars since I went to a private school. Well, of course I wanted to learn and stuff like that but I didn’t forget the fact that I was going to private school. It aint cheap. I’m paying loans for the rest of my life.
