Climbing the Wrong Ladder: The Mismatch between Consumers' Preference for Subgoal Sequences and Actual Goal Performance
Liyin Jin, Qian Xu, Ying Zhang
Journal of Marketing Research · 2015 · Volume 52 · Issue 5
Abstract
When pursuing goals that involve subgoals of varying levels of difficulty, consumers prefer to follow a difficult-to-easy sequence when completing the subgoals because they believe that such a sequence renders the overall goal easier to achieve. However, consumers are actually more successful when they follow an easy-to-difficult sequence when completing subgoals. In seven studies, the authors present consistent evidence for this mismatch and explore the value of subgoals as an important boundary condition.
Keywords
motivation, subgoal, sequence, misprediction, commitment
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