How Backup Plans Can Harm Goal Pursuit: The Unexpected Downside of Being Prepared for Failure

When pursuing a goal, making a backup plan has many benefits including reducing the psychological discomfort associated with uncertainty. However, we suggest that making a backup plan can also have negative effects. Specifically, we propose that the mere act of thinking through a backup plan can reduce performance on your primary goal by decreasing your desire for goal achievement. In three experimental studies, we find that individuals randomly assigned to think through a backup plan subsequently perform worse on their primary goal (Studies 1-3). We further show that this effect is mediated by a decreased desire to attain the primary goal (Study 3). This research provides a novel perspective on plan-making, highlighting an important yet previously unexplored negative consequence of formulating plans.

[1]  R. Winland,et al.  Motivating employees. , 2014, General dentistry.

[2]  Ying Zhang,et al.  All roads lead to Rome: the impact of multiple attainment means on motivation. , 2013, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[3]  Min Zhao,et al.  A Practitioner's Guide to Nudging , 2013 .

[4]  A. Tenbrunsel,et al.  Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes , 2013 .

[5]  Katherine L. Milkman,et al.  Planning prompts as a means of increasing preventive screening rates. , 2013, Preventive medicine.

[6]  Daniel G. Goldstein,et al.  Beyond nudges: Tools of a choice architecture , 2012 .

[7]  Katherine L. Milkman,et al.  Using implementation intentions prompts to enhance influenza vaccination rates , 2011, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[8]  A. Kruglanski,et al.  How many roads lead to Rome? Equifinality set-size and commitment to goals and means. , 2011 .

[9]  Richard G. Netemeyer,et al.  A Generalizable Scale of Propensity to Plan: The Long and the Short of Planning for Time and for Money , 2010 .

[10]  Todd Rogers,et al.  Do You Have a Voting Plan? , 2010, Psychological science.

[11]  Katherine L. Milkman,et al.  How Can Decision Making Be Improved? , 2009, Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

[12]  Suzanne B. Shu,et al.  Future‐biased search: the quest for the ideal , 2008 .

[13]  Robert D. Pritchard,et al.  Work motivation : past, present, and future , 2008 .

[14]  S. Shu,et al.  The Connections Between Affect and Decision Making: Nine Resulting Phenomena , 2008 .

[15]  C. Armitage,et al.  How useful are the stages of change for targeting interventions? Randomized test of a brief intervention to reduce smoking. , 2008, Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association.

[16]  C. Armitage Effects of an implementation intention-based intervention on fruit consumption , 2007 .

[17]  Eric J. Johnson,et al.  Aspects of Endowment: A Query Theory of Value Construction , 2007, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[18]  George Wu,et al.  The uncertainty effect: When a risky prospect is valued less than its worst possible outcome , 2006 .

[19]  Yuval Rottenstreich,et al.  On decision making without likelihood judgment. , 2006 .

[20]  Amar Cheema,et al.  When Goals Are Counterproductive: The Effects of Violation of a Behavioral Goal on Subsequent Performance , 2004 .

[21]  Utpal M. Dholakia,et al.  How effortful decisions get enacted: the motivating role of decision processes, desires, and anticipated emotions , 2003 .

[22]  M. Frese,et al.  Mental fatigue and the control of cognitive processes: effects on perseveration and planning. , 2003, Acta psychologica.

[23]  N. Schmitt,et al.  Personnel Selection and Employee Performance , 2003 .

[24]  E. A. Locke,et al.  Building a practically useful theory of goal setting and task motivation. A 35-year odyssey. , 2002, The American psychologist.

[25]  P. Sheeran,et al.  Combining motivational and volitional interventions to promote exercise participation: protection motivation theory and implementation intentions. , 2002, British journal of health psychology.

[26]  M. Hogg,et al.  Social Identity and Self-Categorization Processes in Organizational Contexts , 2000 .

[27]  P. Gollwitzer Implementation intentions: Strong effects of simple plans. , 1999 .

[28]  Richard P. Larrick,et al.  Goals as Reference Points , 1999, Cognitive Psychology.

[29]  Anne Bruce,et al.  Motivating employees , 1998 .

[30]  J. March Learning to be risk averse. , 1996 .

[31]  E. A. Locke Motivation through conscious goal setting , 1996 .

[32]  Derek J. Koehler,et al.  Hypothesis generation and confidence in judgment , 1994 .

[33]  D. Kahneman,et al.  Timid choices and bold forecasts: a cognitive perspective on risk taking , 1993 .

[34]  Derek J. Koehler,et al.  Explanation, imagination, and confidence in judgment. , 1991, Psychological bulletin.

[35]  E. A. Locke,et al.  A theory of goal setting & task performance , 1990 .

[36]  E. A. Locke,et al.  Separating the effects of goal specificity from goal level , 1989 .

[37]  J. Hollenbeck,et al.  Goal Importance, Self-Focus, and the Goal-Setting Process , 1987 .

[38]  D. A. Kenny,et al.  The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. , 1986, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[39]  C. Berger,et al.  SOME EXPLORATIONS IN INITIAL INTERACTION AND BEYOND: TOWARD A DEVELOPMENTAL THEORY OF INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION , 1975 .