The effects of achievement motivation and subjective temporal distance to deadline on planning fallacy

Abstract

This research investigated the effect of achievement motivation and subjective temporal distance on planning fallacy. Planning fallacy occurs, in part, due to optimistic prediction of how long it will take to complete a task. Previous research has suggested that task motivation could lead to an optimistic prediction, and that subjective temporal distance moderates this optimistic prediction. Forty-eight participants were asked to complete a scrambled sentence task (achievement priming vs. temptation priming), report subjective temporal distance before the final exam, and predict the amount of study time they would spend for the exam. They were followed up on the day of the exam to report their actual study time. Results showed that participants who were primed with achievement motivation showed more optimistic estimate of study time (i.e., planning fallacy) than participants who were primed with temptation motivation. Subjective temporal distance moderated this tendency, and the priming effect was significant only among those who perceived the exam to be distant. The role of motivation and subjective temporal distance on planning fallacy, and their implication for future research were discussed.View full abstract