Can reminder emails compel Americans to save? A two-million-person megastudy

In the United States, 24% of adults have no savings and 39% have less than a month of income saved. We present results from a megastudy where nearly 2 million customers of a US bank were randomly assigned to receive one of seven different 2-month email campaigns, each employing a different behavioral science insight to nudge one-time and recurring savings deposits and increase savings balances or to a control condition without such messages. These campaigns increased the probability of making a one-time savings deposit, on average, by 0.05 percentage points (a 0.51% increase over control). The best-performing campaign delivered weekly messages to customers that differed depending on recent savings behavior: messages to customers who had not made a savings account deposit in the last week included a simple reminder to save, while those to customers who had made a savings account deposit in the prior week were congratulated on this accomplishment. This top-performing campaign increased the monthly likelihood that a customer made a one-time savings deposit by 0.13 percentage points (a 1.32% increase). We estimate that rolling this 2-month campaign out to everyone in our megastudy population would have led to an extra $6,123,996 to $9,910,090 in savings. Together, our findings highlight that light-touch, frequent email nudges can cost-effectively create small increases in savings deposits in the United States. Ideally, to generate meaningful benefits, behavioral science insights would be incorporated into a wider range of communications and incentives designed by financial institutions.

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Publication Details

Journal
PNAS Nexus
Published
2025-08-30
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgaf280
Citations
3
Primary Topic
Technology Adoption and User Behaviour
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
12.51
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Can reminder emails compel Americans to save? A two-million-person megastudy

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PNAS Nexus
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article

Can reminder emails compel Americans to save? A two-million-person megastudy

Youngwoo Jung, Avni Shah, Rayyan S. Mobarak, Shlomo Benartzi, Sean F. Ellis, Matthew D. Hilchey, Heather N. Graci, Katherine L. Milkman, Dena M. Gromet, Dilip Soman, Laura Goodyear, Angela Duckworth, Christophe Van den Bulte, Daniel Mochon, Jonathan Zinman, Mitchell E. Simmons, Nina Mažar, Dean Karlan, Ramon A. Silvera Zumaran, Isabella M DeMay
article en
3 citations

Abstract

In the United States, 24% of adults have no savings and 39% have less than a month of income saved. We present results from a megastudy where nearly 2 million customers of a US bank were randomly assigned to receive one of seven different 2-month email campaigns, each employing a different behavioral science insight to nudge one-time and recurring savings deposits and increase savings balances or to a control condition without such messages. These campaigns increased the probability of making a one-time savings deposit, on average, by 0.05 percentage points (a 0.51% increase over control). The best-performing campaign delivered weekly messages to customers that differed depending on recent savings behavior: messages to customers who had not made a savings account deposit in the last week included a simple reminder to save, while those to customers who had made a savings account deposit in the prior week were congratulated on this accomplishment. This top-performing campaign increased the monthly likelihood that a customer made a one-time savings deposit by 0.13 percentage points (a 1.32% increase). We estimate that rolling this 2-month campaign out to everyone in our megastudy population would have led to an extra $6,123,996 to $9,910,090 in savings. Together, our findings highlight that light-touch, frequent email nudges can cost-effectively create small increases in savings deposits in the United States. Ideally, to generate meaningful benefits, behavioral science insights would be incorporated into a wider range of communications and incentives designed by financial institutions.

PNAS NexusVol. 4(9)
University of Notre Dame (US), Dartmouth College (US), Boston University (US), Northwestern University (US), Tulane University (US), University of California, Los Angeles (US), University of Toronto (CA), Scarborough Health Network (CA), Kellogg's (Canada) (CA), University of the Arts (US), Behavioral Tech Research, Inc. (US), Decision Sciences (United States) (US), Rothman Institute (US), University of Maryland, College Park (US), Anderson University - South Carolina (US), Carnegie Mellon University (US), University of Pennsylvania (US)
Openalex Percentile: Top 2%
Technology Adoption and User Behaviour
12.51
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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