Citation

Burns RJ, Rothman AJ. Appl. Psychol. Health Wellbeing 2018; 10(2): 193-214.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, International Association of Applied Psychology, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/aphw.12126

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Background Offering people financial incentives to increase their physical activity is an increasingly prevalent intervention strategy. However, little is known about the relative effectiveness of different types of incentives. This study tested whether incentives based on specified reinforcement types and schedules differentially affected the likelihood of meeting a walking goal and explored if observed behavioural changes may have been attributable to the perceived value of the incentive.

METHODS A 2 (reinforcement type: cash reward, deposit contract) × 2 (schedule: fixed, variable) between-subjects experiment with a hanging control condition was conducted over 8 weeks (n = 153).

RESULTS Although walking was greater in the incentive conditions relative to the control condition, walking did not differ across incentive conditions. Exploratory analyses indicated that the perceived value of the incentive was associated with the likelihood of meeting the walking goal, but was not affected by reinforcement type or schedule.

CONCLUSIONS The reinforcement type and schedule manipulations tested in this study did not differentially affect walking. Given that walking behaviour was associated with perceived value, designing incentive strategies that optimise the perceived value of the incentive may be a promising avenue for future research.

Language: en

Keywords

financial incentives; health behaviour change; mechanisms of action; physical activity