By Martha C. White, TIME
It’s bathing suit season again, and that means gyms are shedding dollars from their membership prices faster than we’re ditching long pants and sleeves. According to Charles Tran, founder of credit card comparison and personal finance site CreditDonkey.com, June is a good month for gym discounts, especially on daily deal sites. “I’ve been seeing discounts of about 35% to 60%,” he says. “In June, you have more negotiating power when everybody else wants to enjoy the outdoors.”
Men and women run on treadmills at a fitness gym. (Photo: ABBAS MOMANI/AFP/GettyImages)
Since most gyms offer memberships to couples at a discounted rate, it might seem like joining with your partner would be the best way to score a good deal.
Weirdly, it isn’t, and you’re probably throwing money away as a result.
A new study finds that when couples sign on to do something together — start a savings account, diet, get fit and so on — their level of commitment defaults to the least-motivated member of the pair. A lot of people probably think the more conscientious partner would set a good example for and inspire their boyfriend, girlfriend or spouse, but it turns out they’re not the one wielding the primary influence in these situations.
“Self-control is essentially a social enterprise,” writes Hristina Dzhogleva, an assistant professor of marketing at Boston College and lead author of the new paper. In a series of experiments with both real couples and lab simulations, the researchers found that the people with higher self-control tend to cave and give into the more indulgent preferences of their partners in order to keep peace in the relationships.
Read the full article by Martha C. White from TIME.
