The trivial-task motivation effect: highlighting completion of an initial trivial task increases motivation for the main task

Yangjie Gu (), Elaine Chan and Aradhna Krishna
Additional contact information
Yangjie Gu: HEC Paris
Elaine Chan: Nanyang Technological University
Aradhna Krishna: University of Michigan

Marketing Letters, 2024, vol. 35, issue 2, No 4, 219-230

Abstract: Abstract Respondents in online panels often lack motivation when completing research questionnaires. We propose a method to improve their motivation. In many online survey platforms, questionnaires start with a relatively trivial task (e.g., self-identification or responding to screener demographic questions). We show that bringing attention to the completion of these trivial tasks can increase participants’ motivation in the subsequent main task; without this completion cue, the completion of the trivial task tends to go unnoticed. Using different trivial tasks (e.g., providing demographic information, stapling a questionnaire) and main tasks (e.g., commenting about a situation, recalling information), four experiments demonstrate what we call the “trivial-task motivation effect”. We further show that trivial tasks need not be irritants and may be added to surveys, along with a completion cue, to boost motivation. Our research presents an easily implemented and low-cost method to increase motivation in surveys.

Keywords: Trivial task; Task completion; Motivation; Progress (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11002-023-09692-5 Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

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:kap:mktlet:v:35:y:2024:i:2:d:10.1007_s11002-023-09692-5

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... etailsPage=societies

DOI: 10.1007/s11002-023-09692-5

Access Statistics for this article

Marketing Letters is currently edited by Joel Steckel and Peter Golder

More articles in Marketing Letters from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().