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Completed

NCT Number: NCT01875913

The Power of Curiosity: Leveraging Curiosity to Motivate People to Complete Health Risk Assessments

The investigators will work with one of Vitality's partner corporations to test whether curiosity can motivate employees to follow through on their virtuous intentions and complete their annual health risk assessment (VHR). Employees will receive email messages that contain either a curiosity-inducing question or a standard encouragement message. The investigators predict that presenting people with curiosity-arousing questions will make them more likely to complete a health risk assessment, as compared to standard messages.

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Key information

Conditions

Intention Behavior Exploratory Behavior

Age range

18 year and older

Sex eligibility

All sexes

Study type

Interventional

Phase

Not applicable

Primary location

Harvard Kennedy School

Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02138, United States

About this study

The vast majority of adults express the desire and intention of engaging in healthy behaviors-exercising, losing weight, getting a colonoscopy-but then fail to do so. This has massive individual and societal costs. This research tests a promising intervention to increase the likelihood that an adult will follow through on their health-related intentions. Curiosity can be a powerful motivator and can cause people to engage in new behaviors (Tomkins 1962; Silvia 2006); however, curiosity has not yet been used as an intervention to help people follow-through on their intentions. In this project, the investigators target employees who have failed to complete their annual Vitality Health Review (VHR) and test whether curiosity can be used to induce the employees to complete their VHR. The VHR is a medical questionnaire that can help individuals understand medical risk factors they may be prone to. The investigators provide employees with a question and inform them that they will see the answer upon completion of their VHR. The investigators hypothesize that the curiosity-inducing messages will cause employees to follow through on their intention to complete their VHR.

Who can participate

Healthy volunteers accepted: Yes

Only the study team can determine whether someone qualifies for participation.

Inclusion criteria

  • Employees at Vitality's partner's worksites that are in Vitality database
  • Must have email address on file

Exclusion criteria

  • Employees that have already completed their VHR by June 11, 2013

Treatment and study plan

Curiosity Message

Behavioral

Participants will receive email messages that contain one of 8 curiosity-inducing questions. The message will tell participants that they will receive a message with the answer after they complete their VHR (health review that can be completed online).

Standard message

Behavioral

Participants will receive email messages that contain "standard" language encouraging them to complete their VHRs (health review that can be completed online).

Primary outcomes

  1. Completion of VHR

    Time frame: Measured one month after first message (July 12, 2013)

    Whether the participant completes his/her VHR or not

Other outcomes

  1. Previous VHR Completion during 2012-2013

    Time frame: On or before July 12, 2013

    Whether employee completed their VHR the previous year

  2. Social Atmosphere at Worksite

    Time frame: On or before August 12, 2013

    Measured by post-intervention survey with questions about how frequently employees at worksite interact and discuss non-work and Vitality-related matters

  3. Curiosity Type

    Time frame: On or before July 12, 2013

    For participants who receive "curiosity" messages, indicates which curiosity message they received.

Sponsors and collaborators

Lead sponsor

Harvard University

Other

Registry information

Official study title

The Power of Curiosity

Important dates

Study start
2013
Primary completion
2013
Study completion
2013
First posted
Jun 12, 2013
Registry last updated
Aug 31, 2016

OpenTrials presents study information sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov. The official registry record should be consulted for the latest information.

View the official ClinicalTrials.gov record (opens in a new tab)

This listing is for discovery and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, does not guarantee that a study is recruiting, and does not determine eligibility. Contact the study team and a qualified healthcare professional when considering participation.

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