Are you contemplating a dry January or a Veganuary? Want to exercise more and eat less? Many of us make New Year resolutions about this time of the year, only for them to fall apart before the end of January. Not sure you can make the commitment last, economics is here to help with the anti-charity!
The StickK website (https://www.stickk.com) was started by Yale professors, Ian Ayers and Dean Karlan. In graduate school, Karlan had found himself putting on weight as had a fellow grad student. They set up a contract that penalized them half their annual income ($15,000) if they failed to lose weight. When Karlan’s friend put on weight, Karlan collected $15,000 explaining “had I refused to accept it, no future contracts would ever work.”
StickK provides the platform whereby you can make binding contracts because, unlike Karlan, your friend may not enforce the agreement you make together. If you don’t have a friend, or they are unwilling to potentially take your money, you can make a contract with a charity through StickK. If you fail to make the behavior change, your money is donated to a charity of your choice (specified in the contract). The problem with this arrangement is that you feel good about not losing weight because at least the American Heart Association benefits.
Enter the anti-charity. Instead of your contract specifying a charity, identify something you do NOT want your money to got to. For example, if you are a solid Republican voter, specify that your money goes to the Stacey Abrams for Governor campaign if you fail to make the behavioral change. About 50% of contracts on StickK are with anti-charities.
Not all contracts specify stakes, only about a third do. However, contracts with stakes are successful about 80% of the time and anti-charity stakes have the highest success rate at 87%. No stakes contracts had a success rate of under 50%.
Behavior change is hard but having a penalty for failing to change can help with commitment and bring about the desired change.
