The Effect of Goal Visualization on Goal Pursuit: Implications for Consumers and Managers
研究发现，当人们接近目标时，易于可视化的目标会让人感觉更近，从而增强努力和承诺，影响游泳比赛表现、储蓄意愿、服务等待耐心和销售任务绩效，但仅在接近目标时有效，且被子目标削弱。
This research demonstrates that as people approach a goal, external representations, which increase the ease of visualizing the goal, enhance goal pursuit. Specifically, consumers judge easy-to-visualize goals to be closer than difficult-to-visualize goals, which in turn increases effort and commitment. Ease of visualization affects performance in swimming competitions and the physical effort exerted in the lab. Visualization also affects commitment toward savings, willingness to wait for service, and performance in a simulated sales task. Importantly, the beneficial effects of visualization exist only when people are close to the goal. In addition, the effect of visualization attenuates when the goal is split into subgoals. Managers can use these results to enhance consumer goal pursuit, influence consumer satisfaction in online service encounters, and motivate employees to improve performance. In these varied contexts, visual representations of goal progress (e.g., progress bars) enhance motivation as people approach their goal.