If you feel more motivated to work on your health for 2015, you are not alone. You are more likely to pursue your goals after a milestone like your birthday, a new year, the beginning of the week or the first of the month, according to a at the University of Pennsylvania’s The Wharton School.
In a series of studies, Hengchen Dai, Katherine L. Milkman and Jason Riis of The Wharton School discovered that students were more likely to exercise or start a diet after a birthday (7.5%), the start of a new week (33.4%), the beginning of the month (14.4%), the beginning of a semester (47%) or the New Year (11.6%).
The Fresh Start Effect
The research shows that the “fresh start effect” has shown that temporal landmarks, such as distinct calendar dates like the first of the month and life events like a birthday stand out from other days to spur goal directed, aspirational activities. “We demonstrate that more meaningful landmarks magnify people’s intentions to engage and actual engagement in goal pursuit to a larger extent than less psychologically meaningful temporal landmarks,” the authors noted. “We expect that the fresh start effect likely extends to all temporal landmarks, not only those examined in this paper, though certain types of temporal landmarks may produce stronger effects than others.”
A New Mental Accounting Period
The researcher suggest that these landmarks help create a “new mental accounting period” that incude people to take a “big-picture” view of their lives and motivate aspirational behavior. The researchers conclude that further research could explore if and how social influence reinforces the fresh start effect. You can review the entire study here.
Good luck and here’s to your health in 2015.
