When to do the hard stuff? Dispositions, movitavtion and the choice of difficulties

Isabel Melguizo

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: We analyze individual decisions of when to face difficult tasks. Although threatening, difficult tasks provide better economic outcomes than easy ones. We argue how individual dispositions, i.e., the expression of some non-cognitive dimensions, might drive timing decisions. Specifically, when experiencing low dispositions, individuals get trapped into low value easy tasks while when experiencing high dispositions, they are willing to always deal with high value difficult tasks. Also, when outcome achievements motivate individuals, they move from low value easy tasks to high value difficult tasks. This finding is interpreted as individuals preparing themselves to cope with difficulties.

Keywords: individual dispositions; task difficulty; avoidance behavior (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D83 D84 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-hpe and nep-neu
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pra:mprapa:77303

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