The Inertia of Motion

Newton’s first law – an object at rest (motion) stays at rest (motion) – can be applied to human behavior. An individual who has begun (vs. not begun) moving has a greater propensity to keep moving. Thus, those in motion (vs. at rest) exhibit a greater readiness to start a subsequent task and tend to spend less time per “unit” of a task. When forced to choose between maintaining momentum vs. achieving another goal, those in motion tend to choose the former. Three studies support these assertions by observing individuals who believe they have begun (vs. not begun) a task.



Citation:

Sunaina Chugani, Raj Raghunathan, and Ying Zhang (2009) ,"The Inertia of Motion", in AP - Asia-Pacific Advances in Consumer Research Volume 8, eds. Sridhar Samu, Rajiv Vaidyanathan, and Dipankar Chakravarti, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 119-119.

Authors

Sunaina Chugani, UT Austin, USA
Raj Raghunathan, UT Austin, USA
Ying Zhang, UT Austin, USA



Volume

AP - Asia-Pacific Advances in Consumer Research Volume 8 | 2009



Share Proceeding

Featured papers

See More

Featured

Crossing Race and Markets: Introducing the Race in the Marketplace Research Network

Kevin D Thomas, University of Texas at Austin, USA
Sonya Grier, American University, USA
Guillaume D Johnson, Université Paris-Dauphine

Read More

Featured

The Influence of Goal Specificity on Planning Effectiveness: A Meta-Analysis

Ekaterina Napolova, University of Technology Sydney
Francois Carrillat, University of Technology Sydney
Leona Tam, University of Technology Sydney

Read More

Featured

A Conceptual Framework of Violation of Trust and Negative Emotional Responses during Brand Transgressions

Karthik Selvanayagam, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras
Varisha Rehman, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras

Read More

Engage with Us

Becoming an Association for Consumer Research member is simple. Membership in ACR is relatively inexpensive, but brings significant benefits to its members.