Department of Marketing, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA.
Psychol Sci. 2011 May;22(5):607-12. doi: 10.1177/0956797611404899. Epub 2011 Apr 7.
The classic goal-gradient hypothesis posits that motivation to reach a goal increases monotonically with proximity to the desired end state. However, we argue that this is not always the case. In this article, we show that motivation to engage in goal-consistent behavior can be higher when people are either far from or close to the end state and lower when they are about halfway to the end state. We propose a psychophysical explanation for this tendency to get "stuck in the middle." Building on the assumption that motivation is influenced by the perceived marginal value of progress toward the goal, we show that the shape of the goal gradient varies depending on whether an individual monitors progress in terms of distance from the initial state or from the desired end state. Our psychophysical model of goal pursuit predicts a previously undiscovered nonmonotonic gradient, as well as two monotonic gradients.
经典的目标梯度假设认为，接近目标的动机随着目标状态的接近而单调增加。然而，我们认为情况并非总是如此。在本文中，我们表明，当人们远离或接近目标状态时，他们从事目标一致行为的动机可能更高，而当他们接近目标状态的中途时，动机可能更低。我们提出了一种心理物理学解释，以说明这种“卡在中间”的趋势。基于动机受到朝着目标进展的感知边际价值影响的假设，我们表明，目标梯度的形状取决于个体是根据距离初始状态还是根据期望的目标状态来监测进展。我们的目标追求心理物理模型预测了一个以前未发现的非单调梯度，以及两个单调梯度。
