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To frame or not to frame: Implications for effective goal setting
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Abstract
Goal setting is a fundamental mechanism used to enhance performance and to promote individual and organizational achievement. Accordingly, developing ways to improve goal effectiveness can be a valuable endeavor. The current project proposes that the way in which goals are framed should be positively correlated with success rates. Based on prospect theory, the framing effect applied to goal setting was tested in two studies. New Year's resolutions were collected and judged to be framed either positively or negatively, and then compared to the subject success rates. Study 1 (N = 265) results confirmed the initial hypothesis (H1); goals with positive framing resulted in higher self-reported success rates than did goals with negative framing. Study 2 (N = 124) showed similar, albeit less conclusive results. Two other hypotheses were also tested; H2 predicted the Study 2 success rates would be lower than the first, but the speculation was not verified. Finally, H3 predicted a positive correlation between goal framing and self-reported optimism, which was confirmed.
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Decision makers often save money for a specific goal by forgoing discretionary consumption and instead putting the money toward the savings goal. We hypothesized that reference points can be exploited to enhance this type of saving. In two hypothetical scenario studies, subjects made judgments of their likelihood to forgo a small expenditure in order to put the money toward the savings goal. In Experiment 1, judgments were higher if the savings goal was presented as composed of weekly subgoals (e.g., save 180 iPod). Experiment 2 replicated this finding and demonstrated that the subgoal manipulation increased judgments of likelihood to save money only when the money saved from the foregone consumption would allow the decision maker to meet the weekly subgoal exactly (not under or overshoot it). These results suggest a reference point mechanism and point to ways that behavioral decision research can be harnessed to improve economic behaviors.
Very small but cumulated decreases in food intake may be sufficient to erase obesity over a period of years. We examine the effect of slight changes in the accessibility of different foods in a pay-by-weight-of-food salad bar in a cafeteria serving adults for the lunch period. Making a food slightly more difficult to reach (by varying its proximity by about 10 inches) or changing the serving utensil (spoon or tongs) modestly but reliably reduces intake, in the range of 8-16%. Given this effect, it is possible that making calorie-dense foods less accessible and low-calorie foods more accessible over an extended period of time would result in significant weight loss.
Interventions to change health behaviors have had limited success to date at establishing enduring healthy lifestyle habits. Despite successfully increasing people's knowledge and favorable intentions to adopt healthy behaviors, interventions typically induce only short-term behavior changes. Thus, most weight loss is temporary, and stepped-up exercise regimens soon fade. Few health behavior change interventions have been successful in the longer term. In this article, we unpack the behavioral science of health-habit interventions. We outline habit-forming approaches to promote the repetition of healthy behaviors, along with habit-breaking approaches to disrupt unhealthy patterns. We show that this two-pronged approach—breaking existing unhealthy habits while simultaneously promoting and establishing healthful ones—is best for long-term beneficial results. Through specific examples, we identify multiple intervention components for health policymakers to use as a framework to bring about lasting behavioral public health benefits.
This article presents a meta-analysis of the experimental literature that has examined the effect of performance and mastery achievement goals on intrinsic motivation. Summary analyses provided support for the hypothesis that the pursuit of performance goals has an undermining effect on intrinsic motivation relative to the pursuit of mastery goals. Moderator analyses were conducted in an attempt to explain significant variation in the magnitude and direction of this effect across studies. Results indicated that the undermining effect of performance goals relative to mastery goals was contingent on whether participants received confirming or nonconfirming competence feedback, and on whether the experimental procedures induced a performance-approach or performance-avoidance orientation. These findings provide conceptual clarity to the literature on achievement goals and intrinsic motivation and suggest numerous avenues for subsequent empirical work.
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