Framing Goals to Influence Personal Savings: The Role of Specificity and Construal Level
Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 48, pp. 958-969, December 2011
12 Pages Posted: 28 Nov 2011
Date Written: December 2011
Abstract
In four studies, we show that consumers’ savings can be increased or decreased merely by changing the way consumers think about their saving goals. Consumers can (a) either specify or not specify an exact amount to save (goal specificity), and (b) they can focus on either how to save, or why to save (construal level). We find that specific goals help consumers save more when the saving goal is construed at a high level, but non-specific goals help consumers save more when the saving goal is construed at a low level. We obtain the same pattern of results with anticipated saving success and actual savings. Mediation analyses reveal that for high-level construers specific (vs. non-specific) goals lead to success because they are perceived to be more important. However, specific (vs. non-specific) goals are also perceived as more difficult, which is more discouraging for low-level construers.
Keywords: goals, saving, financial decision making, goal specificity, construal level
JEL Classification: M31, E21
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation