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Do you think you would work out more if you were offered money to do so? Science has shown that money can give people motivation to work out, but perhaps not in the way that you think.
According to a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine Journal, the best strategy isn't offering money; it's giving someone money, then threatening to take it away.
Researchers gave 281 people the goal of walking 7,000 steps every day over 13 weeks.
To motivate the people who took part to reach the goal, researchers divided them into three groups.
People in the first group received $1.40(9 yuan) each day as long as they finished 7,000 steps, the second group was only able to collect the $1.40 if they had reached 7,000 steps the day before, and the third group was given $42 at the beginning of each month and $1.40 was taken away every time someone failed to meet the goal.
The third group met their daily fitness goals 50 percent more often than the other two groups, showing that people were most motivated to walk by the fear of losing money.
“People are more motivated by losses than gains, and they like immediate gratification.” study author Dr Mitesh Patel, an assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania in the US, told CNN. “They want to be rewarded today, not next year or far into the future.”
Our brains tend to avoid wanting to lose things more than they try to get the benefits from gaining them, Patel explained. “It makes people think like the money is theirs to lose from day one.”
In addition, in most programs, many participants will drop out quickly and only the motivated will stay involved, Patel said.
“In ours, we were pleasantly surprised that 96 percent stayed.” he added.
The study provides evidence that what matters is not only the money incentive （激励）, but also how you think about them. This is important to how effective they are. The evidence could have a big effect on health promotion programs in the future, according to the study.
“Incentives themselves are not all you need,” Stephanie Pronk, a health and wellness consultant with the Aonplc corporation, told The Wall Street Journal. “It's really important to change up the incentive design and keep people on their toes.”
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