Microtasking and Self-Improvement Programs

Microtasking, or dividing a task into small chunks, is often suggested for self-improvement programs with delayed benefits that people find challenging to follow through. It is, however, unclear when microtasking can help, and if so, how to design the microtasks taking the pricing of the program into account. Through building a behavioral economics framework that explicitly characterizes users’ present bias and their naivety about such bias, we investigate when a self-improvement program provider should adopt the microtasking strategy and examine related design issues. We find that microtasking is profitable under two different circumstances: first, when the benefit-effort ratio is very high initially but tapers off over time. In such a case, the starting microtask of the program should be relatively easy to complete to broaden participation. Second, it is also profitable when the benefit-effort ratio is low initially but increases over time and users’ naivety is relatively low. In such a case, microtasking can help users mitigate their present bias, i.e., the tendency to weigh immediate costs more heavily than future benefits. We show that the program provider does not always benefit from microtasking. Moreover, though consumers as a whole are better off, microtasking may aggravate the negative effect of present bias for some users and make them worse off. Our findings provide several implications for self-improvement programs and policymakers