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Motivational Goal Bracketing

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Author Info
Koch, Alexander K. () (University of Aarhus)
Nafziger, Julia () (University of Aarhus)

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Abstract

It is a puzzle why people often evaluate consequences of choices separately (narrow bracketing) rather than jointly (broad bracketing). We study the hypothesis that a present-biased individual, who faces two tasks, may bracket his goals narrowly for motivational reasons. Goals motivate because they serve as reference points that make substandard performance psychologically painful. A broad goal allows high performance in one task to compensate for low performance in the other. This partially insures against the risk of falling short of ones' goal(s), but creates incentives to shirk in one of the tasks. Narrow goals have a stronger motivational force and thus can be optimal. In particular, if one task outcome becomes known before working on the second task, narrow bracketing is always optimal.

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Publisher Info
Paper provided by Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in its series IZA Discussion Papers with number 4471.

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Length: 32 pages
Date of creation: Oct 2009
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Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4471

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Related research
Keywords: goals; multiple tasks; motivational bracketing; self-control; time inconsistency; psychology;

Find related papers by JEL classification:
A12 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Relation of Economics to Other Disciplines
C70 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - General
D91 - Microeconomics - - Intertemporal Choice and Growth - - - Intertemporal Consumer Choice; Life Cycle Models and Saving

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This page was last updated on 2009-11-23.

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