The motivating and demotivating effects of negative feedback on cross-domain goal pursuit behaviors

Alison Jing Xu; Shirley Y.Y. Cheng; Tiffany Barnett White

doi:10.1086/709275

The motivating and demotivating effects of negative feedback on cross-domain goal pursuit behaviors

Alison Jing Xu, Shirley Y.Y. Cheng, Tiffany Barnett White

Marketing (CSOM)

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

This research shows that domain-specific negative feedback motivates consumers to pursue proving goals and demotivates people to pursue enjoyment goals in subsequent, unrelated situations. These motivational consequences not only influence peoples’ subsequent goal pursuit behaviors when a single goal (either a proving goal or an enjoyment goal) is activated (experiment 1), but they also affect consumers’ choice between a proving goal and an enjoyment goal (experiments 2, 3, and 4). Moreover, although receiving negative feedback may give rise to negative affect, negative affect per se did not drive the motivational consequences of negative feedback (experiment 2). Instead, motivation to boost one’s self-view mediates the motivational influence of negative feedback on goal pursuit behaviors in other unrelated domains (experiment 3). In addition, repeated (vs. single) negative feedback reduces its motivational consequences on pursuing proving goals over enjoyment goals (experiment 4).

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	311-321
Number of pages	11
Journal	Journal of the Association for Consumer Research
Volume	5
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1086/709275
State	Published - Jul 2020

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Alison Jing Xu is an associate professor of marketing and Mary and Jim Lawrence Fellow, Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA. Shirley Y. Y. Cheng is an associate professor of marketing, School of Business, Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong. Tiffany Barnett White is associate professor of marketing and advertising, and Bruce and Anne Strohm Faculty Fellow at Gies College of Business, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL 60607, USA. The authors thank Aaron Barnes, Bob Wyer and Joan Meyers-Levy for comments on previous versions of this article. This research was partially supported by a research grant from the Hong Kong Research Grants Council (ECS 253212) to the second author.

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©, University of Chicago Press. All rights reserved.

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title = "The motivating and demotivating effects of negative feedback on cross-domain goal pursuit behaviors",

abstract = "This research shows that domain-specific negative feedback motivates consumers to pursue proving goals and demotivates people to pursue enjoyment goals in subsequent, unrelated situations. These motivational consequences not only influence peoples{\textquoteright} subsequent goal pursuit behaviors when a single goal (either a proving goal or an enjoyment goal) is activated (experiment 1), but they also affect consumers{\textquoteright} choice between a proving goal and an enjoyment goal (experiments 2, 3, and 4). Moreover, although receiving negative feedback may give rise to negative affect, negative affect per se did not drive the motivational consequences of negative feedback (experiment 2). Instead, motivation to boost one{\textquoteright}s self-view mediates the motivational influence of negative feedback on goal pursuit behaviors in other unrelated domains (experiment 3). In addition, repeated (vs. single) negative feedback reduces its motivational consequences on pursuing proving goals over enjoyment goals (experiment 4).",

author = "Xu, {Alison Jing} and Cheng, {Shirley Y.Y.} and White, {Tiffany Barnett}",

note = "Funding Information: Alison Jing Xu is an associate professor of marketing and Mary and Jim Lawrence Fellow, Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA. Shirley Y. Y. Cheng is an associate professor of marketing, School of Business, Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong. Tiffany Barnett White is associate professor of marketing and advertising, and Bruce and Anne Strohm Faculty Fellow at Gies College of Business, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL 60607, USA. The authors thank Aaron Barnes, Bob Wyer and Joan Meyers-Levy for comments on previous versions of this article. This research was partially supported by a research grant from the Hong Kong Research Grants Council (ECS 253212) to the second author. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright}, University of Chicago Press. All rights reserved.",

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The motivating and demotivating effects of negative feedback on cross-domain goal pursuit behaviors

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