Do you also have the intention to start living a healthier life, study more regularly, or increase your savings? Do you act upon these intentions? Do you actually change your behaviour? Probably less than you would like to. And you are not the only one. Many people experience a gap between their intentions and their behaviour, the intention-behaviour gap. In my research I try to get a better understanding of the drivers of this gap, with the ultimate goal to help people close this gap.
'Today we may plan to go for a run in a week’s time, but next week we may prefer watching television on the couch instead.'
The intention-behaviour gap involves a timing delay between the moment we formulate our intentions and the moment we act upon them. Today we may plan to go for a run in a week’s time, but next week we may prefer watching television on the couch instead. Research in psychology and (behavioural) economics has uncovered several drivers underlying this intention-behaviour gap.
Hyperbolic discounting
Economists tend to explain the intention-behaviour gap by hyperbolic discounting. People are assumed to discount the future consequences of their decisions, that is, they find the present more important than the future. Exponential discounting, the traditional economic model of time discounting, assumes that people discount the future in a consistent manner, and thereby will behave in a time-consistent manner and will not exhibit the intention-behaviour gap. Hyperbolic discounting, a behavioural alternative to exponential discounting, assumes that people discount the future in an inconsistent manner. They may plan to make certain types of decisions in the future, but will fail to fully carry out these plans. Once people become more aware of their inconsistencies, economists say they become more sophisticated. Sophisticated people can adopt two types of strategies to close the intention-behaviour gap. They can make plans that are more realistic, taking their predicted future behaviour into account, but they can also commit to their plans by restricting their future opportunities to deviate from their plans.
'Sophisticated people can commit to their plans by restricting their future opportunities to deviate from their plans.'
While hyperbolic discounting plays a prominent role in economics, the empirical evidence for its role in explaining the intention-behaviour gap is not very convincing. Theoretically, it is the inconsistency in discounting that can explain the gap, not the level of discounting. Yet, most studies that show an association between time discounting and behaviour, fail to properly disentangle the inconsistency and the level of discounting. In a recent study in the journal Management Science, I developed a technique to properly measure the inconsistency in discounting separately from its level. With our team of the “Prevention” action line of the Erasmus Initiative “Smarter Choice for Better Health”, we will implement this technique to study whether the inconsistency in discounting can explain the intention-behaviour gap in physical activity in a large Dutch general population survey administered through Lifelines (Lifelines.nl).
Closing the intention-behaviour gap in physical activity
The psychology literature has also identified other potential drivers of the intention-behaviour gap, some of which are being adopted by economists. One example is projection bias. When people make plans for the future, they have to project themselves to the future to assess their future wants and needs. Research has shown that this projection is biased by our present wants and needs. In our survey in Lifelines we will include measurements related to such alternative drivers of the intention-behaviour gap in addition to the mentioned measurement of the inconsistency in time discounting. This will give us a better understanding of the relative contributions of each of these drivers.
With the same team of researchers, we are currently also developing an app that aims to enhance physical activity by closing the intention-behaviour gap. This app is based on a combination of economic and psychological methods to close the intention-behaviour gap. By using this combination of methods, we aim to target the various drivers that jointly cause the intention-behaviour gap in physical activity. Analysing the effectiveness of three different versions of the app will provide further insight into how to close the gap.
Kirsten Rohde is professor of Behavioural Economics and deputy director of the department of Applied Economics. Her research interests include Behavioural Economics, Decision Theory, Health Economics, and Psychology.
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This item is part of Backbone Magazine 2022. The magazine can be found in E-building or Theil-building for free. Additionally, a digital copy is available here. Backbone is the corporate magazine of Erasmus School of Economics. Since 2014, it is published once a year. The magazine highlights successful and interesting alumni, covers the latest economic trends and research, and reports on news, events, student and alumni accomplishments.
