How Do Habits Form? Experimental Evidence from Health Screenings
-----
Register: https://forms.gle/ieEcJX6UtKWTNfqi9
About the talk:
We develop a framework to identify the mechanisms of habit formation and apply it
to experimental data on annual health screenings from a three-year study of 4,799
university employees. We find strong habit formation from initial exposure: completing
the first screening raised subsequent screening rates by 32.4–36.0 percentage points
(84%–90%) in the second and third years. In contrast, completing a second screening
had minimal effect on subsequent screenings. This pattern contradicts reinforcement
mechanisms like addiction, where recent consumption drives the habit, and instead
supports an experience-good model where consumers learn the value of screening through
first exposure. Experimental and non-experimental estimates yield markedly different
conclusions, underscoring the value of research design for shaping inferences about
the sources of habit formation.
About the speaker:
Damon Jones is an associate professor and associate director of the Stone Center for
Research on Wealth Inequality and Mobility at the University of Chicago Harris School
of Public Policy. He conducts research at the intersection of three fields: public
finance, household finance, and labor economics.
-----