COLLEGE PARK, Md., Aug. 30, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Need help meeting your health goals? The best way to change your behaviors may be to tap into your human desire to reciprocate when a friend gives you something.
A study from the Center for Health Information and Decisions Systems in the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business is the first, say its authors, to examine how reciprocity could be used as a motivator to influence behaviors. Center co-directors Ritu Agarwal and Guodong "Gordon" Gao, and Che-Wei Liu at Indiana University Bloomington, collaborated on the research, forthcoming in MIS Quarterly as "Reciprocity or Self-Interest? Leveraging Digital Social Connections for Healthy Behavior."
The authors looked at how incentive programs can be used to promote healthy behaviors and what happens when reciprocity becomes part of the incentive.
The idea has its roots in the age-old practice of giving and receiving and reciprocating, say the researchers. It's just what people do – return the favor when they get something. That's the social norm, and it's also a way many individuals show their gratitude. Sometimes people reciprocate because they know they'd feel guilty if they didn't. Previous research has studied reciprocity in sales settings and other scenarios, but this paper is the first to look at how it can be used as a motivator for health. "Self-control is a problem that all humans struggle with," says Agarwal, Distinguished University Professor and...
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