BSP

Beyond good intentions: Prompting people to make plans improves follow-through on important tasks

by Todd Rogers, Katherine L. Milkman, Leslie K. John, & Michael I. Norton
February 16, 2017

Author Affiliation

Rogers, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University; Milkman, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania; John and Norton, Harvard Business School, Harvard University. Corresponding author’s e-mail: [email protected]

References

1. Young, M. R., DeSarbo, W. S., & Morwitz, V. G. (1998). The stochastic modeling of purchase intentions and behavior. Management Science, 44, 188–202.

2. Webb, T. L., & Sheeran, P. (2006). Does changing behavioral intentions engender behavior change? A meta-analysis of the empirical evidence. Psychological Bulletin, 132, 249–268.

3. Allcott, H., & Rogers, T. (2014). The short-run and long-run effects of behavioral interventions: Experimental evidence from energy conservation. American Economic Review, 104(10), 1–37.

4. Thaler, R. H., & Sunstein, C. R. (2008). Nudge: Improving decisions about health, wealth, and happiness. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

5. Locke, E. A., & Latham, G. P. (2002). Building a practically useful theory of goal setting and task motivation: A 35-year odyssey. American Psychologist, 57, 705–717.

6. Gollwitzer, P. M., & Sheeran, P. (2006). Implementation intentions and goal achievement: A meta-analysis of effects and processes. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 38, 69–119.

7. Gollwitzer, P. M., & Sheeran, P. (2006). Implementation intentions. Retrieved from http://cancercontrol.cancer.gov/brp/constructs/implementation_intentions/goal_intent_attain.pdf

8. Oettingen, G. (2012). Future thought and behaviour change. European Review of Social Psychology, 23, 1–63.

9. Leventhal, H., Singer, R., & Jones, S. (1965). Effects of fear and specificity of recommendation upon attitudes and behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2, 20–29.

10. Sherman, S. J. (1980). On the self-erasing nature of errors of prediction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39, 211–221.

11. Morwitz, V. G., Johnson, E., & Schmittlein, D. (1993). Does measuring intent change behavior? Journal of Consumer Research, 20, 46–61.

12. Greenwald, A. G., Carnot, C. G., Beach, R., & Young, B. (1987). Increasing voting behavior by asking people if they expect to vote. Journal of Applied Psychology, 72, 315–318.

13. Nelson, L. D., & Norton, M. I. (2005). From student to superhero: Situational primes shape future helping. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 41, 423–430.

14. Gollwitzer, P. M. (1999). Implementation intentions: Strong effects of simple plans. American Psychologist, 54, 493–503.

15. O’Donoghue, T., & Rabin, M. (1999). Doing it now or later. American Economic Review, 89(1), 103–124.

16. Milkman, K. L., Rogers, T., & Bazerman, M. H. (2008). Harnessing our inner angels and demons: What we have learned about want/should conflicts and how that knowledge can help us reduce short-sighted decision making. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 3, 324–338.

17. Buehler, R., Griffin, D., & Ross, M. (1994). Exploring the “planning fallacy”: Why people underestimate their task completion times. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 366–381.

18. Kruger, J., & Evans, M. (2004). If you don’t want to be late, enumerate: Unpacking reduces the planning fallacy. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 40, 586–598.

19. Schacter, D. L. (1999). The seven sins of memory: Insights from psychology and cognitive neuroscience. American Psychologist, 54, 182–203.

20. Einstein, G. O., McDaniel, M. A., Williford, C. L., Pagan, J. L., & Dismukes, R. K. (2003). Forgetting of intentions in demanding situations is rapid. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 9, 147–162.

21. Orbell, S., Hodgkins, S., & Sheeran, P. (1997). Implementation intentions and the theory of planned behavior. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 23, 945–954.

22. Gollwitzer, P. M., Bayer, U., & McCulloch, K. (2005). The control of the unwanted. In R. Hassin, J. Uleman, & J. A. Bargh (Eds.), The new unconscious (pp. 485–515). Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.

23. Cialdini, R. B. (2009). Influence: Science and Practice (Vol. 4, pp. 51–96). Boston: Pearson Education.

24. Stone, J., Aronson, E., Crain, A. L., Winslow, M. P., & Fried, C. B. (1994). Inducing hypocrisy as a means of encouraging young adults to use condoms. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 20, 116–128.

25. Lynch, J. G., Jr., Netemeyer, R. G., Spiller, S. A., & Zammit, A. (2010). A generalizable scale of propensity to plan: The long and the short of planning for time and for money. Journal of Consumer Research, 37, 108–128.

26. Koehler, D. J., White, R. J., & John, L. K. (2011). Good intentions, optimistic self-predictions, and missed opportunities. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 2, 90–96.

27. Armitage, C. J. (2007). Effects of an implementation intention-based intervention on fruit consumption. Psychology and Health, 22, 917–928.

28. Milne, S., Orbell, S., & Sheeran, P. (2002). Combining motivational and volitional interventions to promote exercise participation: Protection motivation theory and implementation intentions. British Journal of Health Psychology, 7, 163–184.

29. Prestwich, A., Lawton, R., & Conner, M. (2003). The use of implementation intentions and the decision balance sheet in promoting exercise behavior. Psychology and Health, 18, 707–721.

30. Achtziger, A., Gollwitzer, P. M., & Sheeran, P. (2008). Implementation intentions and shielding goal striving from unwanted thoughts and feelings. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 34, 381–393.

31. Armitage, C. J., & Arden, M. A. (2008). How useful are the stages of change for targeting interventions? Randomized test of a brief intervention to reduce smoking. Health Psychology, 27, 789–798.

32. Holland, R. W., Aarts, H., & Langendam, D. (2006). Breaking and creating habits on the working floor: A field experiment on the power of implementation intentions. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 42, 776–783.

33. Bayer, C., & Gollwitzer, P. M. (2007). Boosting scholastic test scores by willpower: The role of implementation intentions. Self and Identity, 6, 1–19.

34. Duckworth, A. L., Grant, H., Loew, B., Oettingen, G., & Gollwitzer, P. M. (2011). Self-regulation strategies improve self-discipline in adolescents: Benefits of mental contrasting and implementation intentions. Educational Psychology, 31, 17–26.

35. Rogers, T., Gerber, A. S., & Fox, C. R. (2012). Rethinking why people vote: Voting as dynamic social expression. In E. Shafir (Ed.), Behavioral foundations of policy (pp. 91–107). New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation.

36. Nickerson, D. W., & Rogers, T. (2010). Do you have a voting plan? Implementation intentions, voter turnout, and organic plan making. Psychological Science, 21, 194–199.

37. Milkman, K. L., Beshears, J., Choi, J. J., Laibson, D., & Madrian, B. C. (2011). Using implementation intentions prompts to enhance influenza vaccination rates. PNAS: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108, 10415–10420.

38. Thompson, W. W., Shay, D. K., Weintraub, E., Brammer, L., Bridges, C. B., Cox, N. J., & Fukuda, K. (2004). Influenza-associated hospitalizations in the United States. Journal of the American Medical Association, 292, 1333–1340.

39. Thompson, W. W., Weintraub, E., Dhankhar, P., Cheng, P. Y., Brammer, L., Meltzer, M. I., . . . Shay, D. K. (2009). Estimates of US influenza-associated deaths made using four different methods. Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses, 3, 37–49.

40. Briss, P. A., Rodewald, L. E., Hinman, A. R., Shefer, A. M., Strikas, R. A., Bernier, R. R., . . . Williams, S. M. (2000). Reviews of evidence regarding interventions to improve vaccination coverage in children, adolescents, and adults. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 18(Suppl. 1), 97–140. doi:10.1016/S0749-3797(99)00118-X

41. Szilagyi, P. G., Bordley, C., Vann, J. C., Chelminski, A., Kraus, R. M., Margolis, P. A., & Rodewald, L. E. (2000). Effect of patient reminder/recall interventions on immunization rates: A review. Journal of the American Medical Association, 284, 1820–1827.

42. Milkman, K. L., Beshears, J., Choi, J. J., Laibson, D., & Madrian B. C. (2013). Planning prompts as a means of increasing preventive screening rates. Preventive Medicine, 56, 92–93.

43. Zauber, A. G., Lansdorp-Vogelaar, I., Knudsen, A. B., Wilschut, J., van Ballegooijen, M., & Kuntz, K. M. (2008). Evaluating test strategies for colorectal cancer screening: A decision analysis for the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. Annals of Internal Medicine, 149, 659–669.

44. Dai, H., Milkman, K. L., Beshears, J., Choi, J. J., Laibson, D., & Madrian B. C. (2012). Planning prompts as a means of increasing rates of immunization and preventive screening. Public Policy & Aging Report, 22(4), 16–19.

45. Sheeran, P., Milne, S. E., Webb, T. L., & Gollwitzer, P. M. (2005). Implementation intentions. In M. Conner & P. Norman (Eds.), Predicting health behavior (2nd ed., pp. 276–323). Buckingham, United Kingdom: Open University Press.

46. Koestner, R., Lekes, N., Powers, T. A., & Chicoine, E. (2002). Attaining personal goals: Self concordance plus implementation intentions equals success. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83, 231–244.

47. Adriaanse, M. A., Oettingen, G., Gollwitzer, P. M., Hennes, E. P., De Ridder, D. T., & De Wit, J. B. (2010). When planning is not enough: Fighting unhealthy snacking habits by mental contrasting with implementation intentions (MCII). European Journal of Social Psychology, 40, 1277–1293.

48. Dholakia, U. M., & Bagozzi, R. P. (2003). As time goes by: How goal and implementation intentions influence enactment of short-fuse behaviors. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 33, 889–922.

49. Brandstätter, V., Lengfelder, A., & Gollwitzer, P. M. (2001). Implementation intentions and efficient action initiation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81, 946–960.

50. Gollwitzer, P. M., & Brandstätter, V. (1997). Implementation intentions and effective goal pursuit. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73, 186–199.

51. Verhoeven, A. A., Adriaanse, M. A., Ridder, D. T., Vet, E., & Fennis, B. M. (2013). Less is more: The effect of multiple implementation intentions targeting unhealthy snacking habits. European Journal of Social Psychology, 43, 344–354.

52. Dalton, A. M., & Spiller, S.A. (2012). Too much of a good thing: The benefits of implementation intentions depend on the number of goals. Journal of Consumer Research, 39, 600–614.

53. Bayuk, J., Janiszewski, C., & LeBoeuf, R. (2010). Letting good opportunities pass us by: Examining the role of mind-set during goal pursuit. Journal of Consumer Research, 37, 570–583.

54. Masicampo, E. J., & Baumeister, R. F. (2012). Committed but closed-minded: When making a specific plan for a goal hinders success. Social Cognition, 30, 37–55.

55. Buehler, R., Griffin, D., & Peetz, J. (2010). Chapter One—The planning fallacy: Cognitive, motivational, and social origins. In M. P. Zanna & J. M. Olson (Eds.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 43, pp. 1–62). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.

56. Peetz, J., Buehler, R., & Wilson, A. (2010). Planning for the near and distant future: How does temporal distance affect task completion predictions? Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 46, 709–720.