Reminder emails got students who seldom used the gym to go more often

Mixed
Rare gym users went about 2 more times a month with email reminders than without, but the gain faded.
- Rule: Get a remindertested
- Action: Go to the gymused
Randomised trial of 247 students at a university gym in Italy · vs students who got no reminder emails · behaviour was recorded · ⚠ unpublished working paper; numbers unreliable; randomisation method not described

The study

Who took part

247 students who used a university gym in Bologna, Italy. 89 got reminders and 158 did not. A smaller group of 144 who kept their gym passes the whole time was also studied.

What they did

For over six months, one group got an email about every 4 to 7 days. It said they could use the gym and linked to a page that showed their visits. The other group got no emails.

What happened

Students who had gone less than 9 times a month went about 2 more times a month with emails than without. Across all students the gain was about 1 visit a month, and those who went a lot showed no clear change. After the emails stopped, the gap for rare users shrank to about 1 visit a month, then under 1. The paper doesn't say how groups were picked, and some of its counts don't match.