Instagram influencers, along with apps like Strava and Garmin, often use daily exercise challenges, badges, and other rewards for users to hook athletes on the constant pursuit of personal bests. 

Behavioral economics is a field that studies consumer behavior, combining psychology and economics to demonstrate that real-world results may differ from traditional economic models. Much of behavioral economics relies on the assumption that sometimes consumers may not actually behave in their self-interest, and their actions can be irrational. The running world has truly exploited a part of behavioral economics called “incentive theory”. Incentive theory argues that consumers will act irrationally when exposed to external rewards. The running app “Strava” contains a leaderboard for the fastest attempts on certain segments. Consumers may be motivated to run more to keep their spot at the top of the leaderboard and continue their running streak, which is rewarded with certain badges on Strava. In reality, these badges do nothing for anyone, but they still seem to motivate runners to keep coming back. This relates to firms offering incentives, such as “employee of the month,” to workers for repeated “good” performance, suggesting that people respond to incentives even when the reward may not be tangible. 

While these incentives may work in the short run, the Law of Diminishing Marginal Returns highlights that in the long run, consumers will need more than just incentives to continue activity. The law states that the increase in the consumption of a good will yield smaller and smaller returns from that consumption. This applies particularly to the rewards offered by fitness apps: badges given out initially feel rewarding, but after a certain period, they lose their value. Users may burn out as maintaining physical exercise daily is challenging, and badges and leaderboards don't provide enough incentive to keep many people on the apps. This idea also appears in economics, where each additional unit of a product gives less satisfaction to the consumer.

Fitness challenges offered by apps like Strava illustrate how humans respond to incentives that override the goal of pure rationality;  often, digital incentives —such as badges and rewards — can outweigh the incentive of improved health and the benefits that exercise provides to one's body. 

Works Cited
Cherry, Kendra. “The Incentive Theory of Motivation Explains How Rewards Drive Actions.” Verywell Mind, 2023, www.verywellmind.com/the-incentive-theory-of-motivation-2795382.
Hayes, Adam. “Law of Diminishing Marginal Returns.” Investopedia, 3 Oct. 2024, www.investopedia.com/terms/l/lawofdiminishingmarginalreturn.asp.
Witynski, Max. “Behavioral Economics, Explained.” News.uchicago.edu, The University of Chicago, 2024, news.uchicago.edu/explainer/what-is-behavioral-economics.