scholarly journals Experimental and Non-Experimental Evidence on Limited Attention and Present Bias at the Gym

Author(s):  
Wolfgang Habla ◽  
Paul Muller

Author(s):  
Wolfgang Habla ◽  
Paul Muller

AbstractIn a randomized field experiment, we show that a low-cost intervention, weekly email reminders, increases the weekly exercising frequency of gym members by 13%, with the effect being larger for class training (19%) than for free training (11%). We find that nearly all types of individuals benefit from the reminders (e.g., students, nonstudents, women, men, new members, recurring members), and this effect persists in a three-month posttreatment period. Furthermore, the increase in class visits is partly driven by an increase in the number of bookings of gym classes and a slight decrease in the share of bookings that are canceled. Limited attention and habit formation can best explain these results. In contrast to the increase in gym attendance, we do not find any effect on the duration and renewal of membership contracts.



2021 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Cass R. Sunstein

Abstract One of Friedrich Hayek's most important arguments pointed to the epistemic advantages of the price system, regarded as an institution. As Hayek showed, the price system incorporates the information held by numerous, dispersed people. Like John Stuart Mill, Hayek also offered an epistemic argument on behalf of freedom of choice. A contemporary challenge to that epistemic argument comes from behavioral economics, which has uncovered an assortment of reasons why choosers err, and also pointed to possible distortions in the price system. But, even if those findings are accepted, what should public institutions do? How should they proceed? A neo-Hayekian approach would seek to reduce the knowledge problem by asking what individual choosers actually do under epistemically favorable conditions. In practice, that question can be disciplined by asking five subsidiary questions: (1) What do consistent choosers, unaffected by self-evidently irrelevant factors, end up choosing? (2) What do informed choosers choose? (3) What do active choosers choose? (4) When people are free of behavioral biases, including (say) present bias or unrealistic optimism, what do they choose? (5) What do people choose when their viewscreen is broad, and they do not suffer from limited attention? These questions are illustrated with reference to the intense controversy over fuel economy standards.



2019 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olya Hakobyan ◽  
Sen Cheng

Abstract We fully support dissociating the subjective experience from the memory contents in recognition memory, as Bastin et al. posit in the target article. However, having two generic memory modules with qualitatively different functions is not mandatory and is in fact inconsistent with experimental evidence. We propose that quantitative differences in the properties of the memory modules can account for the apparent dissociation of recollection and familiarity along anatomical lines.



1997 ◽  
Vol 161 ◽  
pp. 437-442
Author(s):  
Salvatore Di Bernardo ◽  
Romana Fato ◽  
Giorgio Lenaz

AbstractOne of the peculiar aspects of living systems is the production and conservation of energy. This aspect is provided by specialized organelles, such as the mitochondria and chloroplasts, in developed living organisms. In primordial systems lacking specialized enzymatic complexes the energy supply was probably bound to the generation and maintenance of an asymmetric distribution of charged molecules in compartmentalized systems. On the basis of experimental evidence, we suggest that lipophilic quinones were involved in the generation of this asymmetrical distribution of charges through vectorial redox reactions across lipid membranes.



Author(s):  
Michael T. Bucek ◽  
Howard J. Arnott

It is believed by the authors, with supporting experimental evidence, that as little as 0.5°, or less, knife clearance angle may be a critical factor in obtaining optimum quality ultrathin sections. The degree increments located on the knife holder provides the investigator with only a crude approximation of the angle at which the holder is set. With the increments displayed on the holder one cannot set the clearance angle precisely and reproducibly. The ability to routinely set this angle precisely and without difficulty would obviously be of great assistance to the operator. A device has been contrived to aid the investigator in precisely setting the clearance angle. This device is relatively simple and is easily constructed. It consists of a light source and an optically flat, front surfaced mirror with a minute black spot in the center. The mirror is affixed to the knife by placing it permanently on top of the knife holder.



Author(s):  
H. Mohri

In 1959, Afzelius observed the presence of two rows of arms projecting from each outer doublet microtubule of the so-called 9 + 2 pattern of cilia and flagella, and suggested a possibility that the outer doublet microtubules slide with respect to each other with the aid of these arms during ciliary and flagellar movement. The identification of the arms as an ATPase, dynein, by Gibbons (1963)strengthened this hypothesis, since the ATPase-bearing heads of myosin molecules projecting from the thick filaments pull the thin filaments by cross-bridge formation during muscle contraction. The first experimental evidence for the sliding mechanism in cilia and flagella was obtained by examining the tip patterns of molluscan gill cilia by Satir (1965) who observed constant length of the microtubules during ciliary bending. Further evidence for the sliding-tubule mechanism was given by Summers and Gibbons (1971), using trypsin-treated axonemal fragments of sea urchin spermatozoa. Upon the addition of ATP, the outer doublets telescoped out from these fragments and the total length reached up to seven or more times that of the original fragment. Thus, the arms on a certain doublet microtubule can walk along the adjacent doublet when the doublet microtubules are disconnected by digestion of the interdoublet links which connect them with each other, or the radial spokes which connect them with the central pair-central sheath complex as illustrated in Fig. 1. On the basis of these pioneer works, the sliding-tubule mechanism has been established as one of the basic mechanisms for ciliary and flagellar movement.



Physica ◽  
1954 ◽  
Vol 3 (7-12) ◽  
pp. 829-833
Author(s):  
C KITTEL


Crisis ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin F. Ward-Ciesielski ◽  
Madeline D. Wielgus ◽  
Connor B. Jones

Background: Suicide-bereaved individuals represent an important group impacted by suicide. Understanding their experiences following the suicide of a loved one is an important research domain, despite receiving limited attention. Although suicide-bereaved individuals may benefit from mental health treatment, their attitudes toward therapy and therapists are poorly understood. Aims: The present study aimed to understand the extent to which bereaved individuals’ attitudes toward therapy and therapists are impacted by whether their loved one was in therapy at the time of death. Method: Suicide-bereaved individuals (N = 243) from the United States were recruited to complete an online survey about their experience with and attitudes toward therapy and therapists following the suicide of a loved one. Results: Bereaved individuals whose loved one was in therapy at the time of death (N = 48, 19.8%) reported more negative and less positive attitudes toward the treating therapist than those whose loved one was not in therapy at the time of death (N = 81, 33.3%) or whose loved one was never in therapy/the deceased’s therapy status was unknown (N = 114, 46.9%). Conclusion: The deceased’s involvement with a therapist appears to be an important factor impacting the experience of bereaved individuals and should be considered when attempting to engage these individuals in postvention.



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