Virtual Progress: The Effect of Path Characteristics on Perceptions of Progress and Choice
通过实验证明，在目标导向的服务中，路径上的空闲段和远离终点的行程会降低消费者的选择意愿，且这些障碍出现越早影响越大，甚至可能超过实际平均进展的影响。
In goal–oriented services, consumers want to get transported from one well–defined state (start) to another (destination) state without much concern for intermediate states. A cost–based evaluation of such services should depend on the total cost associated with the service—i.e., the price and the amount of time taken for completion. In this paper, we demonstrate that the characteristics of the path to the final destination also influence evaluation and choice. Specifically, we show that segments of idle time and travel away from the final destination are seen as obstacles in the progress towards the destination, and hence lower the choice likelihood of the path. Further, we show that the earlier such obstacles occur during the service, the lower is the choice likelihood. We present an analytical model of consumer choice and test its predictions in a series of experiments. Our results show that in choosing between two services that cover the same displacement in the same time (i.e., identical average progress), consumer choice is driven by the perception of progress towards the goal (i.e., by virtual progress). In a final experiment, we show that the effects of virtual progress may outweigh the effects of actual average progress.