They suggest that reducing sources of uncertainty can have important positive externalities. These findings have implications for managers, policy makers and marketers interested in finding ways to alter others’ likelihood of making should choices as well as for individuals interested in increasing their own ability to resist temptation. A series of studies demonstrate that when people choose between want options and should options, the presence of incidental uncertainty in the decision-making environment depletes their available self-control resources and thus increases their chances of selecting wants. This paper examines how uncertainty in a decision maker’s environment affects her likelihood of exerting willpower and selecting shoulds over wants. W ant options provide more immediate pleasure to an individual than should options, but less net future value, and selecting should options over wants therefore requires an exertion of self-control (Milkman et al., 2008). Often, individuals face internal conflict when making decisions, leading them to waffle when attempting to choose between options they viscerally and impulsively want (e.g., eating pizza for lunch, quitting a difficult task) and those they know they should exert willpower to select (e.g., eating salad for lunch, persisting on a difficult task) (Bazerman, Tenbrunsel, & Wade-Benzoni, 1998 Milkman, Rogers, & Bazerman, 2008). Will our stock market portfolio move up or down tomorrow? Will our boss assign us to work on project A or project B? When such uncertainty hangs over us, it may systematically reduce our ability to exert self-control and make choices we know we should given our long-term interests rather than opting for what we viscerally want (i.e., candy). Often in our lives we face uncertainty about what the future will bring. To justify why he had increased his candy consumption during the period in question, one man interviewed by the Times explained “there’s nothing more stressful than growing financial insecurity everywhere”. During the 2008–2009 economic crisis, which dramatically increased uncertainty in the lives of many Americans, the New York Times reported on skyrocketing sales of candy as other consumer expenditures plummeted (Haughney, 2009).
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |