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Hey, it's Greg Rosalsky. Here at Planet Money, we cover the people and forces that shape our economic lives. We've brought you stories that kept people in their homes, like the one on Zombie mortgages. We've gone to great distances to get the story, like traveling to Argentina to cover a new president with some radical economic ideas. Help us keep bringing you these stories in the new year by supporting public media today.

New Year, New You

by Greg Rosalsky

Dear readers:

I’m out for the holidays, but didn’t want to leave you without some insights from econ-land. So we’re rebooting a newsletter from 2020, updated for 2025. It’s about methods to make New Year’s resolutions stick. Next week we won’t be sending out a newsletter. But, you know, “new year, new start” and we'd love your suggestions for topics to cover in 2025. Also, your questions, tips, ideas, personal stories, we want it all. Email us at planetmoney@npr.org.

Sincerely,

Greg

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Per Carlbring knows a thing or two about making New Year’s resolutions stick. He’s a professor of psychology at Stockholm University. And he and his colleagues published a peer-reviewed study on the topic.

Per was inspired to create the study in December 2015, after he attended a virtual reality conference in his native Sweden. One of Per’s research areas is using virtual reality for psychiatric treatments, including as a tool to end people’s fear of spiders. He was having lunch with a couple colleagues, and, with New Year’s Day fast approaching, he asked them if they had any resolutions. His colleagues said such resolutions are silly. I mean, they kinda are, right? The earth orbiting around the sun once is hardly a good reason to improve yourself. Why not just do what’s best for you right now? People are weird.

But Per is a believer in using the start of the year to spark change and improve yourself. This past year, he vowed to run 10 kilometers every other day — and he’s stuck to it, even through the cold Stockholm winter. “For me, New Year's resolutions work quite well,” he says. And, in devising this study, he wanted to know whether they also worked for others. And, if so, which kinds were the most successful.

These are important questions, since a lot of us apparently use arbitrary dates that signal the beginning of something new to try and better ourselves. Companies have known this for years. One study, for example, found that tobacco companies have long advertised more around New Year’s, probably sensing they might be losing customers. Research shows that people don’t only care about new years, but also new weeks, new months, and other landmark dates. In 2014, the researchers Hengchen Dai, Katherine L. Milkman, and Jason Riis dubbed this quirk the “Fresh Start Effect.” They found huge spikes in things like visits to the gym and Google searches for “diet” at the beginnings of weeks, months, and, naturally, years.

But how successful are people with their resolutions? To answer this, Per and his colleagues recruited 1,066 people through social media and the Swedish press for a year-long study. They then randomly divided the participants into three groups. The first was a control group that was asked to fill out a questionnaire about their New Year’s resolutions and weren’t given any support in meeting that goal. The second group was asked to not only make New Year's resolutions, but also to name friends and family members who could help them, and they received support emails throughout the year to try and help them achieve their goals. The final group was asked to make their New Year’s resolutions specific, measurable, and achieved within particular time frames. For example, instead of just “I want to lose weight,” giving a goal like “I want to lose 3 pounds per month.” This last group who made super-concrete resolutions also received the most support emails, with the idea that this heavier intervention would help them the most to achieve their resolution.

Per and his team followed up with the latter two groups via email every month and assessed their progress at the end of the year. Overall about 55% of the study’s participants achieved their New Year's resolutions. Not bad. But one group was more successful than the others. Per says they thought it’d be the ones who made super-concrete resolutions. It wasn’t. It was the ones who made vaguer ones.

Why would precise resolutions be less successful? Per and his team believe such resolutions gave participants too much negative feedback. A study participant may have been successfully losing weight, but they didn’t lose the 3 pounds per month they promised themselves — and that might have led them to abandon the whole project. “Being unsuccessful is demoralizing,” Per says.

So one lesson from their study is that maybe you should pick a somewhat amorphous New Year’s resolution, or, at least one that won’t demoralize you if you don’t meet precise goals or time frames.

Their study has more lessons for which type of resolution you should pick. In general, Per says, resolutions come in two flavors. One is those in which we try to avoid something, like cutting out sugar or quitting vaping. The other is those in which we try to start something new, like learning to hang glide or safely pet tigers. Per says those who had goals for trying new things, as opposed to quitting old things, were more successful. The main reason is simple: quitting is hard. Meanwhile, learning something new often comes with handy guides on how to do it.

No matter what kind of resolution you pick, Per says, it’s helpful to get others involved. Either have the same resolution or tell someone about your goal and ask them to help you stick to it. Peer pressure works. Based on previous studies, Per says, it’s also helpful to put money on the line. Give money to a trusted friend with an arrangement that you’ll get it back at the end of the year only if you fulfill your resolution. And, if you're not successful, your money should go to one of the groups or causes you hate the most. Per says researchers have found this carrot-and-stick approach can be surprisingly successful.

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We made you a Spotify playlist of some of our most popular episodes of the year, including:

Summer Camp Capitalism — A romp and a staff favorite. We visit a popular camp where children go to learn how to survive in a free market economy. They get little jobs, fake debt, cut deals, and learn some hard truths while we listen in. Listen here

The Trade Fraud Detective — A caper of sorts. A US autoparts maker goes on a quest to prove a competitor who’s selling cheaper parts is in fact producing in China. Should be easy. Not so. Listen here

The Hidden World Behind Your “Banking” App — News you can use. If you’ve wondered about ads for online banking services with offers like no minimum balance or monthly fees. The ads seem to say: "These aren't your parents' boring old banks." But the truth is: They might resemble banks, but they aren't. Listen here

Rooftop Solar’s Dark Side — 4.5 million households in the U.S. have solar panels on their homes. Most of those customers are happy with it; lower bills, great for the planet. But a swath of the industry is stuck in a loop of bad incentives and raw deals. We try to untangle it. Listen here

How flying got so bad (or did it?) — The title says what it is. Come aboard our flight back to a time when air travel was a joy ride as we ask, how did we end up in flying sardine cans with seat assignment fees? Kenny and Erika trace the descent. Listen here

Listen to all of these and a few more on our 2024 Highlights Playlist

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