A Field Experiment on Subgoal Framing to Boost Volunteering: The Trade-Off Between Goal Granularity and Flexibility

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Rai, Aneesh; Sharif, Marissa A.; Chang, Edward H.; Milkman, Katherine L.; Duckworth, Angela L.
• 署名单位: University of Pennsylvania; University of Pennsylvania; Harvard University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0021-9010
• DOI: 10.1037/apl0001040
• 发表日期: 2023
• 页码: 621-634
• 关键词: goals; subgoals; field experiment; flexibility

摘要

Research suggests that breaking overarching goals into more granular subgoals is beneficial for goal progress. However, making goals more granular often involves reducing the flexibility provided to complete them, and recent work shows that flexibility can also be beneficial for goal pursuit. We examine this trade-off between granularity and flexibility in subgoals in a preregistered, large-scale field experiment (N = 9,108) conducted over several months with volunteers at a national crisis counseling organization. A preregistered vignette pilot study (N = 900) suggests that the subgoal framing tested in the field could benefit goal seekers by bolstering their self-efficacy and goal commitment, and by discouraging procrastination. Our field experiment finds that reframing an overarching goal of 200 hr of volunteering into more granular subgoals (either 4 hr of volunteering every week or 8 hr every 2 weeks) increased hours volunteered by 8% over a 12-week period. Further, increasing subgoal flexibility by breaking an annual 200-hr volunteering goal into a subgoal of volunteering 8 hr every 2 weeks, rather than 4 hr every week, led to more durable benefits.