Word: cashed
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...week diet program with monthly weigh-ins and an overall goal of shedding 16 lb. The volunteers were then divided into three groups. The first group participated in a lottery program in which those who came closest to or exceeded the weight-loss goal received a variable cash prize determined by how many pounds they shed. The second group agreed to a deposit contract in which they anted up some of their own money as part of a pool. Those who lost the most weight split the pot; those who didn't drop enough weight lost their investment. The last...
Still, the cash-for-fat idea proved powerful, and Volpp envisions ways it could be improved so that the weight loss sticks. If you run the programs for 12 to 18 months, for example, subjects start to reap the physical rewards of trimming down. "Their knees and back no longer ache. They start to look better in clothes," he says. "Those benefits become their own reinforcements, so you can turn off the incentive program." Employers and insurers could adopt a similar program, with monthly premiums falling along with the numbers on the scale. "We all tend to discount amorphous health...
Dieting is not the only discipline that can be encouraged with the promise of cash. Volpp, who is affiliated with the Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Association and Penn's Center for Health Incentives, is exploring similar pay-to-play strategies for such challenges as quitting smoking and adhering to medication regimens...
...your diet or no-smoking pledge, the money be donated - in your name - to a political candidate or group you find objectionable (Greenpeace if you work for an oil company, for example, or an SUV club if you work for Greenpeace). Whatever the strategy, the person holding the cash has to adhere to the rules, no matter what - which is not always easy. A behavioral economist, after all, doesn't have to live with the glowering family member who's fallen off the wagon and is demanding a refund...
...food. While African universities operate in crumbling buildings and lack sufficient computers, Harvard’s endowment now stands at nearly $30 billion, even after the recent financial downturn. Yet Harvard’s well-staffed development office still solicits alumni for dollars as if it were starving for cash: In fiscal year 2008, Harvard netted $651 million from alumni and friends...