Reminders affect savings

Researchers gave participants different treatments to inform them to switch their savings accounts to a more beneficial account. The four treatments were no reminder, a standard reminder, a loss reminder (which focused on how much would be lost if the switch was not made), and the gain reminder (which focused on what would be gained if the switch occurred). Researchers found that compared to the control treatment of no reminder, the standard, loss, and gain reminders increased switching rates at 5.4%, 7.2%, and 7.9%, respectively. Researchers hypothesize that the differences between the reminder types are small because getting a reminder itself is helpful, regardless of the content of the reminder.