Commitment Devices
Voluntarily fine your future self to keep it from making impulsive mistakes.
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~months to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 92%
A commitment device is a self-imposed constraint that penalizes your future self for the behavior you want to avoid. We readily accept fines from employers and governments, but flipping that logic onto ourselves feels counterintuitive, which is why the tool is underused. You can stake money forfeited to charity, appoint a referee, remove privileges, or use time-based boundaries backed by social shame. In a randomized trial, smokers who added a money-on-the-line commitment device quit at a 30% higher rate. The counterintuitive act of constraining yourself is one of behavior change's most powerful levers.
Origin
Milkman points to a randomized controlled trial of smoking cessation where adding a cash-forfeit commitment device on top of a standard protocol raised quit rates, and to websites that let people stake money with a chosen referee.
Core principles
- 01We accept externally-imposed penalties but rarely impose them on ourselves — yet self-imposed constraints are powerful.
- 02Putting money, privileges, or reputation on the line raises the immediate cost of impulsive choices.
- 03Constraints work because our long-term goals often conflict with in-the-moment temptations.
How to run it
- 1
Define the behavior to prevent
State exactly what you want to stop doing — smoking, overspending, browsing certain sites after hours.
- 2
Attach a penalty
Choose a consequence: forfeit money to a charity you dislike, lose a privilege, or invite social shame.
Pro tip Cash isn't the only option — time-based boundaries plus a friend who will shame you work too.
- 3
Appoint a referee
Recruit a friend or use a commitment website to verify whether you hit the goal and enforce the penalty.
- 4
Calibrate the stakes
Make the penalty meaningful enough to change behavior but not so severe you can't recover from a slip.
Watch out Overly extreme penalties leave nothing to do when things go wrong.
In the wild
In a randomized controlled trial, smokers received either a standard cessation protocol or that protocol plus the option to stake money forfeited if they failed a urine test in six months.
→ The group with the commitment device quit at a 30% higher rate.
Websites let a user put money down, choose a referee to hold them accountable, and forfeit the money to charity if the goal isn't met.
→ The immediate financial consequence makes people take the goal far more seriously and follow through.
Common mistakes
Refusing to penalize yourself
People instinctively dislike constraining themselves or risking money, so they skip the single most powerful tool available.
Setting penalties too extreme
A constraint so harsh there's no recovery path becomes counterproductive when a slip inevitably happens.
Is it for you?
Best for
Concrete, verifiable goals like quitting smoking, limiting spending, or capping screen time.
Not ideal for
Goals with no clear verification, or where an overly harsh penalty leaves no room to recover.
From the transcript
“a commitment device is is it's actually you saying here are some behaviors i don't want to engage in here's some things i want to…”
“the people who also have that commitment device they quit at a 30 higher rate so it's really powerful stuff”
From the episode
Katy Milkman: The Science of Change
Katy Milkman