Cushion Against Sacrifice Failure

Consumers are more likely to enroll in and adhere to a program requiring discipline if those consumers are allowed to fudge. Researchers at UCLA talk of building an emergency reserve into programs like commitments to lose weight, exercise more, and limit cell phone minutes.
     Importantly, people in these programs resist dipping into the emergency reserves, so they tend to meet their goals, experience satisfaction, and sign on for more challenges. The resistances to use are greater when the conditions of the program say that if the consumer uses it today, they can’t use it tomorrow or if the consumer dips into the reserve today, they’ll need to do something tomorrow to compensate for this.
     Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis and Florida State University found that people aiming to lose weight remain more engaged in a program when the objective is stated as “lose between four and six pounds this next month” than as “lose five pounds this month.” A range also worked better when the objective was to save money during a specified period.
     Three forces are in play:

• Attainability. People reject objectives they view as outside reasonable reach for them. The lower number in the range serves as a hook. Similarly, knowing there is an emergency reserve bestows the appeal of just-in-case flexibility. 
• Challenge. Goals which require an effort will excite people, and excitement leads to engagement. The higher number in the range provides the challenge. As participants in the program realize they don’t have to depend on using the reserve, they get stimulated to do more. 
• Self-efficacy. When people achieve an objective they’ve set themselves, they feel more confident in setting subsequent objectives of the same sort. The width of a range increases the likelihood the objective will be met. Moreover, the self-efficacy limited to a particular type of task might spill over to generalized self-confidence. 

     However, there’s a difference between having a range of acceptance and having a separate backup plan. In a set of studies at University of Wisconsin-Madison and University of Pennsylvania, people were asked to complete tasks with a promise of rewards for success. Some of the participants were also encouraged to develop backup plans for how they might obtain equivalent payoffs if failing to get them from the study conditions. Those participants with backup plans did less well on the tasks and showed a lower drive to get the reward.

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