Finance Papers
Document Type
Journal Article
Date of this Version
2014
Publication Source
Psychological Science
Volume
26
Issue
12
Start Page
1927
Last Page
1936
DOI
10.1177/0956797615605818
Abstract
People often fail to muster the motivation needed to initiate goal pursuit. Across five laboratory experiments, we explored occasions when people naturally experience enhanced motivation to take actions that facilitate goal pursuit and why certain dates are more likely to spur goal initiation than others. We present causal evidence that emphasizing a temporal landmark denoting the beginning of a new time period increases people’s intentions to initiate goal pursuit. In addition, we propose and show that people’s strengthened motivation to begin pursuing their aspirations following such temporal landmarks originates in part from the psychological disassociation these landmarks induce from a person’s past, imperfect self.
Copyright/Permission Statement
Hengchen Dai, Katherine L. Milkman, Jason Riis, Put Your Imperfections Behind You: Temporal Landmarks Spur Goal Initiation When They Signal New Beginnings, Psychological Science, (Volume 26, Issue 12) pp. 1927-1936. Copyright © 2015 SAGE. Reprinted by permission of SAGE Publications
Recommended Citation
Dai, H., Milkman, K. L., & Riis, J. (2014). Put Your Imperfections Behind You: Temporal Landmarks Spur Goal Initiation When They Signal New Beginnings. Psychological Science, 26 (12), 1927-1936. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0956797615605818
Embargo Date
11-5-2016
Date Posted: 27 November 2017
This document has been peer reviewed.