TY - JOUR AU - Milkman,Katherine L. AU - Beshears,John AU - Choi,James J. AU - Laibson,David AU - Madrian,Brigitte C. TI - Following Through on Good Intentions: The Power of Planning Prompts JF - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series VL - No. 17995 PY - 2012 Y2 - April 2012 UR - http://www.nber.org/papers/w17995 L1 - http://www.nber.org/papers/w17995.pdf N1 - Author contact info: Katherine L. Milkman University of Pennsylvania 3730 Walnut Street 561 Jon M. Huntsman Hall Philadelphia, PA19104 E-Mail: kmilkman@wharton.upenn.edu John Beshears Stanford Graduate School of Business 655 Knight Way Stanford, CA 94305-7298 Tel: 650/723-6792 E-Mail: beshears@nber.org James J. Choi Yale School of Management 135 Prospect Street P.O. Box 208200 New Haven, CT 06520-8200 E-Mail: james.choi@yale.edu David Laibson Department of Economics Littauer M-12 Harvard University Cambridge, MA 02138 Tel: 617/496-3402 Fax: 617/495-8570 E-Mail: dlaibson@gmail.com Brigitte C. Madrian John F. Kennedy School of Government Harvard University 79 JFK Street Cambridge, MA 02138 Tel: 617-495-8917 Fax: 617-496-5960 E-Mail: Brigitte_Madrian@Harvard.edu AB - We study whether prompts to form and recall a plan can increase individuals’ responsiveness to reminders to make and attend beneficial appointments. At four companies, all employees due for a colonoscopy were randomly assigned to receive either a control mailing or a treatment mailing. The mailings were identical except that the control mailing included a blank sticky note while the treatment mailing included a sticky note that prompted the recipient to write down the appointment date for a colonoscopy and the name of the doctor who would conduct the procedure. During the seven-month follow-up period, 7.2% of treatment employees received a colonoscopy compared to 6.2% of control employees, a statistically significant difference that is roughly equal to the variation in compliance associated with a 10 percent increase in the fraction of the procedure’s cost covered by insurance. The treatment effect was largest for demographic groups judged to be at the highest risk of failing to receive a colonoscopy due to forgetfulness. ER -