What happened
The account was called SEED. Each client chose either a goal date or a goal amount and, in J-PAL's summary, was then “unable to withdraw from the account until the goal is reached.” It paid 4% a year, the same as an ordinary savings account, so the restriction was the only difference.
The researchers surveyed 1,777 current and former clients of Green Bank of Caraga in the Butuan City area. A month later they offered SEED to a randomly chosen 710 of them. Others heard the same marketing script without the offer, or got nothing, so the groups could be compared. The study ran in 2003 and 2004.
202 of the 710, or 28.4%, opened a SEED account. Women whose answers to the first survey suggested they might want a commitment device were “significantly more likely” to sign up.
After twelve months, average savings balances had grown 81 percentage points more in the group offered SEED than in the comparison group. That comparison counts everyone who was offered the account, including those who turned it down. The authors concluded that this was a lasting change in saving. The study was published in the Quarterly Journal of Economics in 2006.
What it shows
Given the choice, a real share of people chose to limit their own future options. SEED offered no reward for doing so. Its only feature was the restriction, and more than a quarter of the people offered it wanted it.
The restriction held for a full year and changed what people did with their money. The decision was made once, in advance, and the account kept it in place through the months that followed.
Most clients did not sign up. A commitment device is something people choose for themselves, when they know they want one.
About Unlure
How Unlure uses this
Unlure is a commitment device for your devices. You set it up while calm, and it keeps that decision in place: protection stays on, and every way to loosen it waits three days.
As with SEED, you choose the terms. You pick the waiting period. A longer one takes effect at once, while a shorter one has to wait out the current period.
Once set, the terms hold. We do not shorten the wait or hand out a code early, for anyone, including you.
This part describes Unlure. None of the sources on this page studied it.
Sources
- 1.
Ashraf, N., Karlan, D. and Yin, W. (2006). “Tying Odysseus to the Mast: Evidence From a Commitment Savings Product in the Philippines.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 121(2), 635–672.
- 2.
J-PAL (Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab). “Commitment Savings Products in the Philippines.” Evaluation summary. Read on 19 October 2026.
A wait between the urge and the way out.
Unlure blocks adult sites on your Windows PC or Android phone. Making it stricter is instant. Turning it off takes three days.