The Small-Area Hypothesis: Effects of Progress Monitoring on Goal Adherence

Minjung Koo and Ayelet Fishbach

Journal of Consumer Research, 2012, vol. 39, issue 3, 493 - 509

Abstract: This article examines a small-area hypothesis: individuals striving toward a goal end state exhibit greater motivation when their attention is directed to whichever is smaller in size--their accumulated or remaining progress. The result is that, at the beginning of goal pursuit, directing attention to accumulated progress increases goal adherence relative to directing attention to remaining progress (e.g., 20% completed is more impactful than 80% remaining). However, with closeness to the goal, directing attention to accumulated progress lessens goal adherence relative to directing attention to remaining progress (e.g., 20% remaining is more impactful than 80% completed; studies 1-2). The focus on small areas increases motivation by creating an illusion of fast progress (study 3). Therefore, when individuals wish to prolong goal pursuit and avoid reaching the goal's end state, they slow down goal adherence when their attention is directed to small areas (study 4).

Date: 2012
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (25)

Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/663827 (application/pdf)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/663827 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:jconrs:doi:10.1086/663827

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Consumer Research is currently edited by Bernd Schmitt, June Cotte, Markus Giesler, Andrew Stephen and Stacy Wood

More articles in Journal of Consumer Research from Journal of Consumer Research Inc.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().