Recent research by Hengchen Dai and Katherine Milkman has found that tracking employee behavior with regards to hand washing can increase hand hygiene compliance but after employee tracking stops, compliance levels dropped below the rates before tracking was implemented.
July 18, 2016
-Harvard Business Review
Simply wanting to change certain behaviors that we know raise the risk for health problems isn't enough to get most of us to follow through, but University of Pennsylvania’s Katherine Milkman has a concept known as “temptation bundling” to help make positive behavior changes.
July 7, 2016
-NPR
Calendar alerts, notes, and even the old-fashioned string-around-the-finger work occasionally, but they don’t always provide the reminder at a time when you need it most, and they’re so common that they are easily overlooked or ignored. A new report published in Psychological Science finds that using reminders by association is a better method for remembering.
June 15, 2016
-Fast Company
People often claim that “it pays to have a plan B” and “the best laid plans” often go awry. However, new Wharton research shows that merely thinking through a backup plan may actually cause people to exert less effort toward their primary goal, and consequently be less likely to achieve that goal they were striving for.
June 2, 2016
-Knowledge@Wharton
Temptation bundling offers a simple way to accomplish these tasks that are always important, but never feel urgent. By using your guilty pleasures pull you in, you make it easier to follow through on more difficult habits that pay off in the long-run.
May 23, 2016
-The Huffington Post
Most of us have stubborn items like these in our to-do apps, those tasks that never seem to get done, such as taking a suit to the dry cleaners or getting the dog groomed. Nothing bad happens when we don't do them, so we don't do them, even if our rational brains know they should get done. This article discusses several techniques to combat procrastination based on research by Professor Katherine Milkman, among others.
March 14, 2016
- PC Magazine
When it comes to science, women and men remain unequal. And while stories about overt harassment dominate the news, a host of researchers, including Professor Katherine Milkman, are teasing out the subtle reasons for why inequalities exist.
March 6, 2016
-The Chronicle of Higher Education
The start of a new year or a new week, a birthday, or a holiday are dates that have something in common: they all stand out as being more meaningful than other days. These temporal landmarks generate “fresh start” feelings that can motivate us to meet virtuous goals, such as exercising regularly, according to research from the behavioral scientists Hengchen Dai, Katherine Milkman, and Jason Riis.
March 1, 2016
-Scientific American Mind
Citing research by Professor Katherine Milkman, among others, the author discusses ways to combat procrastination.
February 14, 2016
-Business Insider
This week we're talking about New Year's resolutions. A little late, aren't we? Nope. We're just in time. Research by Professor Katherine Milkman shows we like "fresh starts," and they do come more frequently than once a year.
January 19, 2016
-National Public Radio (Hidden Brain)
The arrival of a new year, with its clean slate, gives you another shot at getting things right, or at least making them better. My Wharton colleague Katy Milkman has conducted research on the “fresh start effect,” and it’s really real: January — or a birthday, anniversary, new month, or any personally meaningful marker of time — does actually create a stronger motivation to refresh yourself.
January 14, 2016
-Harvard Business Review
Wharton operations, information and decisions professor Katherine Milkman spoke with Professor Richard Thaler about why he wrote the Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics, where behavioral economics has had the most impact, and which decision-making bias he would remove if he had a magic wand.
January 13, 2016
-Knowledge@Wharton
Katy Milkman, an associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, joins the hosts of Bloomberg Benchmark to walk through seven proven strategies to stay on target by harnessing economics research aimed at saving us from ourselves.
January 7, 2016
-Bloomberg Business (Benchmark Podcast)
Research out of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania suggests that people see New Year's Day, their birthdays and even the start of a new month or week as "temporal landmarks" — an imaginary line demarcating the old "inferior" self from a new and improved version. That explains why we often fail at resolutions — our new selves are usually not much better than the old ones. But it also suggests how we might stick to our resolutions — use more temporal landmarks to reach our goals.
January 1, 2016
-National Public Radio (Hidden Brain)
A Wharton study from 2013 found that interest in dieting increases at the start of a new week by 14.4% and the new year by 82.1%. The authors, Hengchen Dai, Katherine L. Milkman, Jason Riis, propose that we embrace lofty goals on artificial dates because it offers a new mental accounting period, allowing us to put our old, fat, lazy selves in the past tense and start anew with an improved version of ourselves.
December 29, 2015
-Quartz
2015 was the Year of Trump because he is the perfect candidate for our viral age. His success tells us a lot about the nature of what goes viral and how it reflects our beliefs and our fears. This article cites research on virality by Professor Katherine Milkman.
December 29, 2015
-The New York Times
Every year around this time of year, people harness something that the behavioral economist Katherine Milkman calls the “Fresh Start Effect.” We use the temporal landmark of a New Year to give ourselves a clean slate — a fresh start, if you will — and commit to a whole manner of aspirational behaviors. But this year, instead of focusing on the extraordinary, I urge you to focus on the average.
December 23, 2015
-Huffington Post
The New Year is a great time to re-evaluate if you are saving enough to retire well. Many people are inspired to set goals during landmark times of year, according to research co-authored by Katherine Milkman, an associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School.
December 21, 2015
-U.S. News & World Report
Unless you’re Tony Robbins, finding the motivation to exercise can be tougher than the actual workout itself. Your willpower can be easily defeated by the demands of a family, the responsibilities of work, or even the enticing glow of a TV. The key may be a process called “temptation bundling,” according to a study by Professor Katherine Milkman in Management Science.
December 18, 2015
-Men's Health
Jan. 1 isn’t the only day for new beginnings. All year long, people make silent promises to themselves to change something in their lives, and the start date for that change is rarely selected at random. Katherine Milkman, a professor at the Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania, has named it the “fresh start effect.”
December 15, 2015
-The Washington Post
