“Can You” Or “Will You”: How Progress-Based Inferences Impact Motivation in Consumer Goal Pursuit

Because consumers ask different questions to establish commitment at beginning versus advanced stages of goal pursuit, we propose that progress that is made through personal effort and that is received with no effort will have distinctively different impact on motivation, depending on individuals’ relative position in goal pursuit. When progress on achieving a goal is low, people are concerned about its attainability. Because low progress that is made through effort investment (vs. endowed progress) signals higher difficulty of goal attainment, it should result in lower goal commitment and, subsequently, deceased motivation. Conversely, when progress on the goal is high and the attainment of the goal is relatively secured, people are more concerned about the value of the goal. Because progress made through personal effort (vs. endowed progress) signals a greater value of the goal, it should lead to greater goal commitment and, subsequently, higher motivation. Results from three studies supported this hypothesis.

Citation:

Ying Zhang and Szu-Chi Huang (2011) ,"“Can You” Or “Will You”: How Progress-Based Inferences Impact Motivation in Consumer Goal Pursuit", in E - European Advances in Consumer Research Volume 9, eds. Alan Bradshaw, Chris Hackley, and Pauline Maclaran, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 90.