Commitment Device

02What People Think

“If I really intend to do something later, remembering the promise should be enough.”

03What’s Underneath

Someone wants an uninterrupted evening and voluntarily puts their phone in a box that will open in two hours. Later, a message notification would have been tempting, but reaching the phone is no longer a costless choice. The earlier decision has changed what the later decision-maker can easily do.

A commitment device is an arrangement chosen in advance to support a future goal by restricting options or adding a cost to abandoning it. Some devices physically limit access. Others attach money, accountability or reputational consequences to a choice. Their purpose is to alter the future decision, rather than simply express a strong intention.

The commitment is voluntary at the point it is adopted. Somebody else controlling access without that choice is a different situation. Devices can also be too weak, easy to evade or costly when circumstances genuinely change. A person borrowing another phone around the lockbox illustrates the gap between a restriction’s design and the alternatives still available.

04The Game

What becomes harder after the arrangement is adopted, and which escape routes remain? The device changes the available choices; whether that change helps depends on the goal and circumstances.