The Star: Why ‘Fresh Starts’ — Like New Year’s Resolutions — Really Work
“Hengchen Dai, Katherine Milkman and Jason Riis began by analyzing eight-and-a-half years of Google searches. They discovered that searches for the word ‘diet’ always soared on Jan. 1 — by about 80 per cent more than on a typical day. No surprise, perhaps. However, searches also spiked at the start of every calendar cycle — the first day of every month and the first day of every week. Searches even climbed 10 per cent on the first day after a federal holiday. Something about days that represented ‘firsts’ switched on people’s motivation.”
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