A growing body of research suggests GLP-1 drugs can do more than just help people lose weight by curbing addictive behaviors. Now, experts at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania want to see whether the drugs can benefit people’s bank accounts by reducing risky financial decisions, such as gambling or compulsive shopping.

“We believe GLP-1s will ultimately lead to some structural remodeling of the brain, which is where some of those long-term impacts on food choice could show up, but also on financial decision-making,” Michael Platt, a neuroscientist and professor at Wharton, told CBS News.

“It might be very good financially for the average person — maybe they’re putting more money into savings,” he added.

In a first-of-its-kind study, Platt and his fellow researchers will examine how GLP-1s influence the body’s reward system, a network of brain structures that reinforces certain behaviors, to see whether the drugs suppress temptations such as luxury purchases, gambling or other activities that people often find hard to control.

If that proves true, GLP-1s could help Americans resist risky financial decisions and potentially develop better spending and saving habits, Platt said.

Risks and rewards

The body’s reward system “underlies all consumption decisions,” he explained. The researchers posit that GLP-1s could make people more responsible decision-makers through a simple injection, a habit that might otherwise take years to cultivate on their own, Platt said. That hypothesis stems from earlier research by Geoff Cook, the CEO of Noom, a digital health company that is funding the Wharton study.

“There is anecdotal speculation in high-risk professions that dampening reward drive might also dampen appetite for risk and very high returns,” Platt said in an overview of the Wharton study, referring to professions such as stock trading. “At the other end of the spectrum, the same shift could potentially help ordinary consumers resist impulsive spending and favor longer-term financial goals.”

A 2026 Northwestern Mutual study found that 73% of Americans actively participated in, or considered pursuing, highly speculative activities like sports betting and investing in cryptocurrencies because they believed these methods were more effective at achieving their financial goals than conventional, less risky methods, such as investing in index funds.

How spending lights up your brain

The Wharton team plans to recruit about 180 participants for the study, which will run from mid-October through around March 2027 at the University of Pennsylvania’s MindCORE research lab.