To the Editor:
The essay suggests that the best method to induce employees to lose weight is to start them with $42 in an account each month and deduct $1.40 each day they do not meet the goal. The logic is that people hate to lose what they are given.
I tried a similar method on my undergraduate students, some of whom were always late for class. I tried giving them bonus points on their grades for coming on time and found that it had little effect. When I tried a loss aversion tactic, I gave them 10 points at the beginning of the semester, and they lost one of those points each time that they were late.
I found that they were more likely to get to class on time but that they were furious at me. They felt entitled to the 10-point bonus, and each time they lost a point for being late, they complained that it wasn’t fair and that I was being sadistic.
So companies may succeed in getting their employees to lose weight using this method, but they may also lose employees and lower morale by doing so.
ROBERTA SATOW
New York
The writer is professor emerita of sociology at Brooklyn College, CUNY.
