Public commitment as a motivator for weight loss

✍ Scribed by Prashanth U. Nyer; Stephanie Dellande

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2010
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 80 KB
• Volume: 27
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0742-6046
• DOI: 10.1002/mar.20316

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Many long‐term services, e.g., weight‐loss programs, require that customers comply with instructions, provide the inputs, and thus co‐create a major portion of the service. This article investigates the role of public commitment in influencing motivation and behavior in a weight‐loss setting. The role of susceptibility to normative influence (SNI) is also examined. The publicness with which a commitment to weight loss is made has a significant and favorable impact on long‐term weight‐loss compliance behavior. Short‐ and long‐term public commitment resulted in higher levels of weight‐loss motivation and higher levels of weight loss. Weight‐loss motivation partly mediates the effect of public commitment on weight loss, while SNI moderates the effect of public commitment on weight loss. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.