We investigate the role of heterogeneous peer effects in encouraging healthy and sustainable lifestyles. Our analysis revolves around one of the largest and most extensive databases about weight loss, which contains well over 10 million observations that track individual participants' meeting attendance and progress in a large national weight loss program. A few key findings emerge. First, while higher weight loss among average performing peers leads to lower future weight loss for an individual, the effect of the top weight loss performer among peers leads to greater future weight loss for that same individual. Second, the discouraging effects from average peers and encouraging effects from top performing peers are magnified for individuals who struggled with weight loss in the past. Third, the encouraging effect of top performers has a long-run impact on an individual's weight loss success. Finally, we provide suggestive evidence that the discrepancy between the top and average performer effects is not likely an artifact of salience or informativeness of top performers, but instead, driven by its positive impact on the motivation to accomplish weight loss goals. Given our empirical findings, we discuss managerial implications on meeting design.

中文翻译：

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“最大的失败者”的启示：减肥计划中的社交互动

我们调查异质同伴效应在鼓励健康和可持续生活方式方面的作用。我们的分析围绕着有关减肥的最大，最广泛的数据库之一进行，该数据库包含超过1000万个观察值，这些观察值可以跟踪各个参与者的会议出席率以及大型国家减肥计划的进展。出现了一些关键发现。首先，虽然平均表现良好的同龄人中较高的体重减轻可降低个人未来的体重减轻，但同龄人中表现最出色的体重减轻者的影响可导致同一个人未来的体重减轻更大。其次，对于过去因减肥而苦苦挣扎的人，普通同龄人的挫折效应和最佳同龄人的鼓励效应被放大了。第三，表现最好的人的鼓励作用对个人的减肥成功具有长期影响。最后，我们提供了具有启发性的证据，表明最高绩效者与平均绩效者之间的差异不太可能是最高绩效者的显着性或信息量的假象，而是由其对实现减肥目标的积极影响所驱动的。鉴于我们的经验发现，我们讨论了会议设计的管理意义。