AttMain · Comparing the properties and the consequences of attainment versus maintenance goals

Economic and social behavior is often goal directed. People and organizations can strive for two kinds of goals: They can strive for an improvement of the current state (e.g., increase the balance of a savings account-an attainment goal), or they can strive for holding on to the current state (e.g., maintain the balance of a savings account -a maintenance goal). Research to date has studied attainment goals in isolation, but it has rarely compared the properties and processes associated with attainment versus maintenance goals. As a consequence of the absence of such systematic comparisons, our understanding of maintenance goals remains limited, and our understanding of attainment goals incomplete. Recent academic research comparing the two goal types indicates that they hold different properties. However, many important questions remain open: Are attainment or maintenance goals more attractive, and under what circumstance? What types of plans are more appropriate for the pursuit of each goal type? Is individual performance affected differently by the two goal types? Under what circumstances? Are independent versus interdependent cultures more inclined towards one of the two goal types? Answering these questions is the objective of the proposed research program. Providing these answers will require a combination of laboratory and field studies. Hence, the results will be compatible with the experimental psychology tradition in goals’ research, and relevant for the field of behavioral economics. Moreover, given the importance of goals in several research domains (e.g., marketing, consumer behaviour, management, psychology) and real world contexts (e.g., saving, dieting, work, investments, charities) the results of the proposed research program are expected to affect a variety of disciplines. Finally, as much of the related research is being conducted in the USA, the proposed research program could serve as a basis for further stimulating research on goals in Europe.