This is picture from the site dietbetter.com. At this site, you can actually make wagers with other people that you'll lose weight.
The amounts wagered are quite nominal. $25 for a 30-day or 6-month weight-loss challenge. That is far less than the expected gains an overweight person would see from decreased health care costs. It's likely only a small fraction of the non-monetary value that a person who is 30-pounds overweight would find from dropping 15,20, or 30 pounds.
Yet - these bets work! But why? Why would such a small amount, likely 1/100 of the non-monetary value of the weight-loss to the overweight person induce people to lose weight? Behavioral economics has some insight.
People value losses more than they do an equivalent gain. This idea is called "loss-aversion", and was made prominent by Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman. (Kahneman won a Nobel prize in 2002. Tversky probably would have shared it with him, but he died young.) Through a series of clever experiments, they found that people value items more when they have them. That is, losing $25 would be more painful for a person than winning $25 is enjoyable.
Many people want to lose weight but they just can't stay motivated to eat right and exercise. But having a bit of money on the line - mainly because of the fear of losing it - can help people stay motivated and lose weight.
I am one of these people! I offered my fall 2014 class $100 if I couldn't drop down to 193 pounds from a starting weight of 207. Here is the progression of my weigh-ins throughout the fall semester.
September 12:
September 26:
October 7:
November 12:
November 25:
Weight loss bets work!
For more, see this longer-article describing weight-loss bets in the NY Times.
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