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The relationship between monetary incentives, social status, and physical activity

Author

Listed:
  • Valdez Gonzalez, Natalia I.
  • Kee, Jennifer Y.
  • Palma, Marco A.
  • Pruitt, J. Ross

Abstract

We conduct a field experiment to better understand the role of social status with and without monetary incentives as motivation to increase physical activity. We find that social status alone does not induce a change in physical activity. When social status is combined with monetary incentives, however, we find a change in the number of daily steps. This change is heterogeneous. Individuals with low physical activity increase their number of steps by 12%, while those with high physical activity decrease the number of steps by 25%. An incentives treatment with exogenous social status – uncorrelated with physical activity – provides robustness to our findings and, together with the control condition, rules out potential experimenter demand effects and other factors driving the results. Our results call for a cautionary approach for analyzing the role of social status, in many cases unobserved, for physical activity intervention programs.

Suggested Citation

  • Valdez Gonzalez, Natalia I. & Kee, Jennifer Y. & Palma, Marco A. & Pruitt, J. Ross, 2024. "The relationship between monetary incentives, social status, and physical activity," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:soceco:v:108:y:2024:i:c:s2214804323001817
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2023.102155
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