Behavioural Economic Interventions to Promote Health and Wellness on a Canadian Mobile Health Application

Behavioural economics demonstrates that people consistently behave in irrational ways that lead to poorer health outcomes. Yet the way in which people behave irrationally is predictable, which governments and organizations around the world have used to design “nudges” to “[alter] people’s behaviour in a predictable way without forbidding any options” (Thaler & Sunstein, 2008). Carrot Rewards is a Canadian mobile health (mHealth) application that serves as a platform for delivering nudges on a mass scale. It incentivizes its 850,000+ users to improve their health and wellness with loyalty reward points redeemable for consumer goods. Since the app was launched in 2016, it has introduced new features designed to leverage behavioural economic principles. While these principles have been found to be effective in other contexts, their effectiveness has yet to be determined in the context of an mHealth app. The objectives of the proposed research is the evaluation and optimization of these features, which will benefit the partner organization by enhancing the impact of their product, while providing an opportunity for the fellow to practice applying his research and statistical expertise in the product development and evaluation processes of the company.

Faculty Supervisor:

Marc Mitchell

Student:

Partner:

Carrot Insights Inc;Western University

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

Western University

Program: