The role of time and enjoyment in consumers’ goal progress perceptions

Wu, Yuchen, Giurge, Laura M. ORCID: 0000-0002-7974-391X and Woolley, Kaitlin (2025) The role of time and enjoyment in consumers’ goal progress perceptions. Journal of the Association for Consumer Research. ISSN 2378-1815 (In Press)

Text (Yuchen-Giurge-Woolley-2025-Time-Enjoyment-Goal-Progress-Perceptions-JACR) - Accepted Version Pending embargo until 1 January 2100. Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. Download (1MB)

Abstract

Consumers must invest time to make progress on a goal. Yet across nine studies (seven preregistered), including a supplemental study and post-test, consumers relied more on an activity’s enjoyment than on perceived or actual time investment when judging goal progress. This effect arises because consumers hold two lay theories about progress: a time-progress lay theory and an enjoyment-progress one. Consumers rely more on the latter, in part because enjoyment is easier to evaluate and more attention-grabbing than time. For example, gym-goers believed they made more progress and burned more calories when exercise was more (vs. less) enjoyable, than when it felt longer (vs. shorter); similarly, increasing enjoyment of a skill-building task increased perceived skill development more than increasing task duration. These lay theories affect choice: consumers preferred a shorter, more enjoyable activity, unless the time-progress lay theory was activated and/or the diagnosticity of the enjoyment-progress lay theory was challenged.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	© 2025 The Authors
Divisions:	Psychological and Behavioural Science
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
Date Deposited:	01 Dec 2025 11:06
Last Modified:	01 Dec 2025 11:06
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/130371

Actions (login required)

View Item