The Role of Public Commitment as a Motivator for Weight-Loss

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 paper investigated the role of public commitment in influencing motivation and compliance behavior in a weight-loss setting. The study used a 3 x 2 full factorial design manipulating three levels of public commitment (no public commitment, short-term public commitment, and long-term public commitment), and a median split to generate two levels of Susceptibility to Normative Influence (SNI; low and high). The subjects in this study were 211 women between the ages of 20 and 45 enrolled in a women’s weight-loss program at a center in southern India. The subjects were selected from among the new clients who signed up for a 16 week weight-loss program designed to help clients lose modest amounts of excess weight (typically 15 to 20 pounds), help maintain this weight-loss, and also help them transform their lifestyles so that they could live healthier lives.