The fresh start effect: Temporal landmarks motivate aspirational behavior
Dai, Milkman and Riis analyse three archival data sets. Daily United States Google search volume for the word diet over 3,104 days from 2004 to 2012 rose about 82 per cent at the start of a year, about 14 per cent at the start of a week, about 4 per cent at the start of a month and about 10 per cent on the first working day after a federal holiday, with no systematic rise for unrelated placebo terms. Swipe records for 11,912 undergraduate gym members over 442 days showed the probability of a visit rising about 33 per cent at the start of a week, 47 per cent at the start of a semester, 24 per cent on the first day after a break and 14 per cent at the start of a month, with about 7.5 per cent more visits after birthdays other than the twenty-first. In 66,062 stickK commitment contracts from 43,012 users, new contracts rose about 145 per cent at the start of a year, 63 per cent at the start of a week and 24 per cent at the start of a month, and goals about career, education and money followed the calendar pattern. The authors propose that landmarks create new mental accounting periods and say the mechanisms were not directly tested in the field data.
Dai, Milkman and Riis analyse three archival data sets. Daily United States Google search volume for the word diet over 3,104 days from 2004 to 2012 rose about 82 per cent at the start of a year, about 14 per cent at the start of a week, about 4 per cent at the start of a month and about 10 per cent on the first working day after a federal holiday, with no systematic rise for unrelated placebo terms. Swipe records for 11,912 undergraduate gym members over 442 days showed the probability of a visit rising about 33 per cent at the start of a week, 47 per cent at the start of a semester, 24 per cent on the first day after a break and 14 per cent at the start of a month, with about 7.5 per cent more visits after birthdays other than the twenty-first. In 66,062 stickK commitment contracts from 43,012 users, new contracts rose about 145 per cent at the start of a year, 63 per cent at the start of a week and 24 per cent at the start of a month, and goals about career, education and money followed the calendar pattern. The authors propose that landmarks create new mental accounting periods and say the mechanisms were not directly tested in the field data.
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Dai, H., Milkman, K. L., & Riis, J. (2014). The fresh start effect: Temporal landmarks motivate aspirational behavior. Management Science, 60(10), 2563-2582. doi:10.1287/mnsc.2014.1901 https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2014.1901