IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/jconrs/v37y2010i1p68-79.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Resisting That Triple-Chocolate Cake: Mental Budgets and Self-Control

Author

Listed:
  • Parthasarathy Krishnamurthy
  • Sonja Prokopec

Abstract

This research examines whether mental budgets, defined as self-specified allowances for behaviors, can help with self-control. We theorize that mental budgets will lead to greater self-control when the avoidance aspects of the behavior are made salient and when the decision context allows easy monitoring of one's own behavior. Study 1 finds that mental budgets help reduce consumption of indulgent products when avoidance aspects of the behavior are made salient. Study 2 finds that even when avoidance aspects are made salient, mental budgets are effective only when option information enables monitoring of one's choices relative to the budget. Study 3 finds that external reference points (a feature of both studies 1 and 2) play a critical role in reducing consumption. Study 4 extends the findings from studies 1 and 3 and finds that mental budgets are effective in enhancing self-control if the person also has a high chronic prevention focus. (c) 2009 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc..

Suggested Citation

  • Parthasarathy Krishnamurthy & Sonja Prokopec, 2010. "Resisting That Triple-Chocolate Cake: Mental Budgets and Self-Control," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 37(1), pages 68-79, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:jconrs:v:37:y:2010:i:1:p:68-79
    DOI: 10.1086/649650
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/649650
    File Function: link to full text
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1086/649650?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mariya Davydenko & Marta Kolbuszewska & Johanna Peetz, 2021. "A meta-analysis of financial self-control strategies: Comparing empirical findings with online media and lay person perspectives on what helps individuals curb spending and start saving," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(7), pages 1-25, July.
    2. Zeng, Yangyi & Herzfeld, Thomas, 2021. "The effects of mental budgeting on the intentions to switch to low-toxicity pesticides: Evidence from vegetable farmers in Sichuan, China," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 13(3).
    3. Antonides, Gerrit & de Groot, I. Manon, 2022. "Mental budgeting of the self-employed without personnel," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    4. Miaolei (Liam) Jia & Xiuping Li & Aradhna Krishna & Lisa E Bolton & Darren W Dahl & Margaret C Campbell, 2020. "Contraction with Unpacking: When Unpacking Leads to Lower Calorie Budgets [See What You Want to See: Motivational Influences on Visual Perception]," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 46(5), pages 853-870.
    5. Olsen, Jerome & Kasper, Matthias & Kogler, Christoph & Muehlbacher, Stephan & Kirchler, Erich, 2019. "Mental accounting of income tax and value added tax among self-employed business owners," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 125-139.
    6. Kato, Ryo & Hoshino, Takahiro, 2021. "Unplanned purchase of new products," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    7. Huang, Jiaqi & Antonides, Gerrit & Nie, Fengying, 2020. "Is mental accounting of farm produce associated with more consumption of own-produced food?," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    8. Das, Debabrata & Dutta, Pankaj, 2022. "Product return management through promotional offers: The role of consumers’ loss aversion," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 251(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oup:jconrs:v:37:y:2010:i:1:p:68-79. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/jcr .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.