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(CNN) - Do you want to increase your daily steps? You must be competitive.
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A new study followed 602 overweight or obese adults using physical activity trackers and found that those who entered a competition game to increase their daily steps had the greatest increase in physical activity compared to groups without rewards or rewards different.
“We compare that competition, collaboration or support worked better. People exposed to the competitions added 920 steps per day to their activity levels compared to the control group, while the collaboration and support groups only added 600 steps, ”said Dr. Mitesh Patel, who heads the Penn Medicine Nudge Unit, the world's first behavioral design team integrated into a health system.
The goal of the team is to use behavioral economics to design ways to improve individual health behaviors, such as physical activity, loss of health and the like.
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Not only did the group that competed against others take more steps, but they continued to do so for three months after the game ended (as part of the investigation follow-up), making more than 600 steps a day for the additional three months.
"Over the course of nine months, people in the competition group walked approximately 160 kilometers more than people in the control group," Patel said.
In fact, the controls and groups that used an aid, such as an exercise partner or the support of family or friends, saw their activity levels fall once the game ended.
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"This is the biggest gamification test ever done as far as I know," said Patel. “He studied people from 40 different US states. UU. for nine months. I think it has the potential to have a big impact. ”
The study was published Monday in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine.
Play with our behavior
Gamification, or the use of rewards, points and other tricks to increase our commitment to healthy behaviors, is an increasingly popular tool among insurance and wellness programs in the workplace.
"It is usually based on what is called a standard economy, which means that you do something, get rewards and, as you do more, you level up to even greater rewards," Patel explained.
Behavioral science already knows a lot about how to motivate us. It turns out, for example, that we are much more likely to mind losing the rewards that we have to earn new ones.
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"We gave people 70 points at the beginning of each week and they lost points if they did not meet their goal," Patel said. “Then, every day they received a text message. You did not meet your goal, you lost 10 points. And that tends to be more motivating. ”
At the end of each week people rose or fell. The lowest was blue, then bronze, silver, gold and platinum. Each person started the program at the silver level, so if they dropped a level, they could feel the bite of losing state, another motivational trick learned from behavioral science.
In addition, the study caused participants to sign a contract that they would remain in the program.
"We know that people who signed pre-commitment contracts are more likely to meet their goals," Patel said.
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Most exercise trackers set a goal of 10,000 steps a day, Patel said. But this study allowed participants to choose their own goals, as long as the goal was at least 1,500 steps above the baseline. Setting smaller and attainable goals, Patel said, is more likely to drive success.
"The other key thing we use is something called 'new startup effect,'" Patel said. “People are more motivated by the aspiration behavior around temporary benchmarks, such as the beginning of the year, the beginning of the month or the week. "And so, every week we gave 70 new points, which meant I had a new beginning," Patel said. "So, all those things added up. But in the end, what made the difference was to use the competition. ”
Does all this sound like behavior manipulation? Maybe, Patel said. "Yes, but it is for your own good," he said. "Certain industries may try to use these techniques to buy things or bet. Here we are trying to help people be healthier. ”
Physical activity