A year ago I argued that societies can benefit from settling on a particular date on which people commit to making changes in characteristics—such as kindness, forgiveness, and tolerance—that affect interpersonal relations.
Great article, and I think you capture one side very clearly: there can be a lot of benefits to synchronized resolutions. But, there can also be costs: some resolutions may be easier to keep if people were not all doing it at once (e.g., would people be more likely to stay with the gym if they started at a random time of the year or when a lot of new people are showing up?), and some resolutions may be more prevalent if our resolution day was in a different time of the year (e.g., are some healthy ideas like daily walks undermined by resolutions starting in January?). There could be a very interesting model about what types of resolutions benefit from coordination and what does not.
Very interesting ideas David. Links to the literature on strategic complements (which I emphasize in the post) versus strategic substitutes (your gym example). Resolutions on birthdays rather than New Year's Eve would work better in the case of substitutes.
Great article, and I think you capture one side very clearly: there can be a lot of benefits to synchronized resolutions. But, there can also be costs: some resolutions may be easier to keep if people were not all doing it at once (e.g., would people be more likely to stay with the gym if they started at a random time of the year or when a lot of new people are showing up?), and some resolutions may be more prevalent if our resolution day was in a different time of the year (e.g., are some healthy ideas like daily walks undermined by resolutions starting in January?). There could be a very interesting model about what types of resolutions benefit from coordination and what does not.
Very interesting ideas David. Links to the literature on strategic complements (which I emphasize in the post) versus strategic substitutes (your gym example). Resolutions on birthdays rather than New Year's Eve would work better in the case of substitutes.