Conquering the inner couch potato: precommitment is an effective strategy to enhance motivation for effortful actions.

ABSTRACT: Letting effort-free gratification derail us from effort-requiring goals is one reason why we fail to realize health-relevant intentions like 'exercise regularly'. We tested the effectiveness of the self-control strategy precommitment in such effort-related conflicts, using a novel laboratory choice paradigm, where participants could precommit to an effort-requiring large reward by pre-eliminating an effort-free small reward from their choice set. Our participants used precommitment frequently and effectively, such that they reached effort-requiring large rewards more often. Using computational modelling and Bayesian model comparisons, we assessed whether participants employed precommitment to avoid anticipated willpower failures (i.e. as a self-regulatory measure) or to maximize their moti

SUBMITTER: Studer B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6335452 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature