The “Break-In” Effect: a Token Gesture Can Increase Task Initiation and Prevent Goal Abandonment

Many goal pursuits fail at the stage of task initiation. We find that token “break-in” gestures that are goal-irrelevant, yet break the psychological barrier between pre-pursuit and in-pursuit phases, can increase the likelihood of task initiation and prevent goal abandonment by reducing the perceived dauntingness of the initial task.



Citation:

Adelle Xue Yang, Babu Gounder, and Rajesh Bagchi (2018) ,"The “Break-In” Effect: a Token Gesture Can Increase Task Initiation and Prevent Goal Abandonment", in NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 46, eds. Andrew Gershoff, Robert Kozinets, and Tiffany White, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 160-164.

Authors

Adelle Xue Yang, National University of Singapore, Singapore
Babu Gounder, University of Miami, USA
Rajesh Bagchi, Virginia Tech, USA



Volume

NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 46 | 2018



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