Commitment Strategies

Useful for:

• Restraint Bias
• Commitment
• Hot-Cold Empathy Gap

Approach:

Work well if the risk of submitting to a temptation can be anticipated, and removing the temptation is feasible.

Examples:

• "Informal Bets" — Bet on yourself to achieve a desired outcome. The pain of having to pay cash for not achieving it is more salient than the abstract effort needed in the moment to move toward the outcome.

Referenced in:

• Nudge: The Final Edition by Thaler & Sunstein