putting behavioral economics to work
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WWCMA Meeting November 15, 2011: Putting Behavioral Economics to Work with Health and WellnessTRANSCRIPT
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Putting Behavioral Economics to Work with Health and Wellness
Worksite Wellness Council of Massachusetts | November 15, 2011
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The Problem
Homo Economicus
(How we’ve viewed people)
Rational
Maximize value for self
Well informed
Likelihood of events based on objective probabilities and facts
Homo Sapiens
(How people really behave)
Boundedly rational
Use decision “short-cuts”
Make decisions using available information
Likelihood of events based on context, emotion, recent events
Benefit designs, communication, and delivery are based on assumptions about peoples’ behaviors that are proving not to be accurate
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We Use Mental Shortcuts
$______ $______
A cup of coffee and a newspaper together cost $3.50. The coffee costs $1.00 more than the newspaper.
How much does the newspaper cost?
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Do NYC Cab Drivers Maximize Their Outcomes?*
* Camerer et al., Labor Supply of New York City Cab Drivers: One Day at a Time. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1997.
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Six Behavioral Tendencies That You Can Harness or Overcome
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Inertia: A Bias for the Status Quo
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Organ Donation
4.25
27.50
17.1712.00
99.98 98.00 99.91 99.97 99.50 99.64
85.90
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Denmark
Netherlands
UK
Germany
Austria
Belgium
France
Hungary
Poland
Portugal
Sweden
Source: Johnson & Goldstein. Do Defaults Save Lives? Science, November 2003.
Effe
ctiv
e co
nsen
t per
cent
age
Explicit consent (opt-in)
Presumed consent (opt-out)
Plan Design: Leveraging Defaults to Overcome Inertia
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Overcoming Inertia with Ease: On-Site Flu Shots
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Temporal Discounting: The Tyranny of the Present vs. the Promise of the Future
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You Might Need to Lose Weight,But Why Do You Want to Start Now?
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New Contest at My Gym for the Holidays!
No Gain for the Holidays
Having a problem keeping off the pounds during the holiday season? Then we have the contest for you.
If you don’t gain a single pound from Nov. 21st until Jan. 2nd,
YOU WIN ONE FREE MONTH OF MEMBERSHIP!
You must weigh-in every Monday.*
*All contestants actual weights will be kept confidential.
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Loss Aversion: Losing Hurts Worse Than Winning Feels Good
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Framing Messages: Using Loss Aversion to Promote Wellness
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Framing Messages: Using Loss Aversion to Promote Wellness
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Framing Messages: Using Loss Aversion to Promote Wellness
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Plan Design: Using Loss Aversion to Save Money
Targeted employees with
maintenance medications
Prescription home delivery (Large retailer)
Two retail courtesy fills allowed
(a financial loss)
By third fill employees must...
Active decision required
Switch to home delivery
Stay at retail
Call PBM to switch
Pay drug’s full cost at retail
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Social Norms: What’s Everyone Else Doing?
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Social Norms: Smoking Is Addictive, but Quitting Is Contagious*
*Christakis & Fowler. The Collective Dynamics of Smoking in a Large Social Network. The New England Journal of Medicine, 2008.
“What people need to understand is that because our lives are connected, our health is connected.”
—Nicholas Christakis, M.D, Ph.D.
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Using Social Norms: Health & Wellness Events
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Using Leadership and Champions to Create Social Norms
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Using Social Norms: On-Site Screenings
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Choices: Liberation or Paralysis?
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Availability: Hearing the Wake-Up Call
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A New Customer Reality for Wellness Messaging?
A Possible Focus of Health Engagement Over the Course of One Year
Emphasize health engagement the other 50 weeks
AEpre-AE post-AE
Get flu shot; why it’s particularly important for
diabetics
Diabetes c.
Take an HRQ; special sidebar
on diabetes
Diabetes d.Diabetes a.
Reduce the focus on annual
enrollment
Diabetes b.
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Opt-in Text Messaging
Reminders
Calls to action
Behavioral campaigns
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A Way to Enhance Behavior Change Efforts
educate
motivate
facilitate
Make It EasyMake It Relevant