Rom Y. Schrift

Staying the Course: The Option of Doing Nothing and Its Impact on Postchoice Persistence

Individuals regularly face adversity in the pursuit of goals that require ongoing commitment. Whether or not individuals persist in the face of adversity greatly affects the likelihood that they will achieve their goals. We argue that a seemingly minor change in the individual’s original choice set—specifically, the addition of a no-choice option—will increase persistence along the chosen path. Drawing on self-perception theory, we propose that choosing from a set that includes a no-choice (do nothing) option informs individuals that they both prefer the chosen path to other paths and that they consider this path alone to be worth pursuing, an inference that cannot be made in the absence of a no-choice option. This unique information strengthens individuals’ commitment to, and increases their persistence on, their chosen path. Three studies employing incentive-compatible designs supported our predictions and ruled out several rival accounts.

Complicating Decisions: The Work Ethic Heuristic and the Construction of Effortful Decisions

The notion that effort and hard work yield desired outcomes is ingrained in many cultures and affects our thinking and behavior. However, could valuing effort complicate our lives? In the present article, the authors demonstrate that individuals with a stronger tendency to link effort with positive outcomes end up complicating what should be easy decisions. People distort their preferences and the information they search and recall in a manner that intensifies the choice conflict and decisional effort they experience before finalizing their choice. Six experiments identify the effort-outcome link as the underlying mechanism for such conflict-increasing behavior. Individuals with a stronger tendency to link effort with positive outcomes (e.g., individuals who subscribe to a Protestant Work Ethic) are shown to complicate decisions by: (a) distorting evaluations of alternatives (Study 1); (b) distorting information recalled about the alternatives (Studies 2a and 2b); and (3) distorting interpretations of information about the alternatives (Study 3). Further, individuals conduct a superfluous search for information and spend more time than needed on what should have been an easy decision (Studies 4a and 4b). (PsycINFO Database Record

Do costly options lead to better outcomes? How the protestant work ethic influences the cost-benefit heuristic in goal pursuit

People often assume that costlier means lead to better outcomes, even in the absence of an objective relationship in the specific context. Such cost–benefit heuristics in goal pursuit have been observed across several domains, but their antecedents have not been fully explored. In this research, the authors propose that a persons tendency to use cost–benefit heuristics depends on the extent to which that person subscribes to the Protestant Work Ethic (PWE), an influential concept originally introduced to explain the rise of capitalism. The PWE is a core value predicated on the work-specific belief that hard work leads to success, but people who subscribe strongly to it tend to overgeneralize and align other work-unrelated cognitions for consistency. Across ten studies (N = 1,917) measuring and manipulating PWE, robust findings show that people who are high (vs. low) in PWE are more likely to use cost–benefit heuristics and are more likely to choose costlier means in pursuit of superior outcomes. Suggestions are provided for how marketers may identify consumers high versus low in PWE and tailor their offerings accordingly.