Thursday, May 7, 2009

Getting StickKy With It

I heard an interesting segment on WNYC's Brian Lehrer Show a few days ago about a website called StickK, which seeks to provide its participants motiviation for change.

Dean Karlan, a Yale economics professor and co-founder of StickK, discussed "this innovative way to keep commitments" by, basically, "taking a contract out on yourself."

Mafia jokes aside, I can see how this might be effective, and the site is rife with testimonials to that effect.

But, seeing life in the complicated way that I do... and knowing how poorly any kind of "just do it" attitude works for me, I weighed in the following on the Leher segment's comments page:

Three stories:

(1) When a perpetually overweight friend joined Weight Watchers, his mother sneered that he'd fail. Within months he far exceeded his goal, proving at the very least he could stickK it to his mother. Six moths later, he gained it all back and more.

(2) I have also struggled with my weight and several years ago took up a challenge in my gym, NYHRC, for "the member who could improve fitness the most in 6 months." I won. Within a year, all the weight was back, and more.

(3) In 2005, I started bellydancing to heal three herniated lumbar discs. Three years later, my back was better but my weight was the same. I loved dancing so much, however, and found it helped me enjoy my body no matter what it looked like, that last year 20 pounds melted away with no significant change in diet or exercise.

A year later, the weight is still gone and I eat what I like.

The moral?

I think an incentive can work in the short-term to modify behaviors that are driven largely by habit.

But if the unhealthy behavior (such as overeating, addiction, etc.) is driven by deeper needs and compulsions, an incentive will not only fail in the long term, it may do more harm than good as a person may end up feeling worse for failing after having briefly succeded.

In my case, the "deeper need" was simply to feel happy with my body. Once that need was met, no behavior modification strategies were necessary.

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