The Effects of Indulgence on Motivation and Emotions
The Effects of Indulgence on Motivation and Emotions
Frank Vanderlyde
Tilburg University
School of Social and Behavioral Sciences
Bachelor Psychology and Society
ANR: 705652
Supervised by: Irene Blanken
Maart 2015
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The Effects of Indulgence on Motivation and Emotions
Abstract
Past research on indulgence has showed positive and negative effects on motivation and
persistency. Results from previous scientific research showed a high correlation between
justifications and indulgence. This thesis is conducted to confirm/deny past findings on the
effects of indulgence and to increase the theoretical framework. The three studies in this thesis
investigate the effect of indulging from saving money and the effects of positive and negative
justifications for this goal. Study one investigates whether positive, negative or no justification
would lead to different effects on indulgence. Study two investigated if a good or a bad
justification would have an effect on indulgence. In study three the experimenters test if an
acceptable reason or an unacceptable reason to indulge would have different effects on
participant’s motivation and persistency to continue the goal in the future. The three studies
conducted in this thesis did not find any significant results that indicate effects between
indulging and motivation or persistency. The effects of justifications also were insignificant for
the three studies, therefore the hypotheses of these studies couldn’t be confirmed or denied.
Key words: indulgence, justification, self-control, ego-depletion, self-regulation
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The Effects of Indulgence on Motivation and Emotions
The positive and negative sides of indulgence
Many individuals try to achieve a certain goal in their life. People want to become skinny, save
money, stop drinking or smoking. But not everyone succeeds in achieving their goals. This thesis
investigated the variables that are involved in succumbing to temptation and how they are related
to achieving or failing to reach a goal.
Self-control and motivation are important to attain these goals. Self-control refers to the
mental processes that allow people to override their thoughts, emotions and behaviors to keep
them in line with overarching goals (Inzlicht, Schmeichel & Macrae, 2014). Self-control can be
described as a human muscle, after a workout the human muscle is tired and won’t perform as
well as before. Just as the human muscle self-control has a limit that won’t perform as well after
a hard day at work. Prior studies showed, when participants had exceeded their amount of selfcontrol, they would perform worse on other tasks that acquire the participants to refrain from
certain behavior (Vohs, Baumeister & Schmeichel, 2012; Baumeister et al., 2007; Hagger et al.,
2010; Vohs & Heatherton, 2000). For example, in an experiment where participants were tested
to avoid an activated thought of a white bear leaded to participants to be significant less
successful at resisting laughing while watching a funny movie in the follow up study
(Baumeister et al., 1998). These results show that like a human muscle, self-control cannot be
used infinitely because after a certain period of time self-control can diminish. After exceeding
the limit of self-control the participants showed a decrease in goal motivation.
Other research states that self-control is different in every person and controlled by their
beliefs and motivation.(Vohs, Baumeister & Schmeichel, 2012). This study investigates whether
loss of self-control is caused by an energy deficit or whether it depends on a person’s beliefs and
motivation to continue their goal. The results of this study showed that the ego depletion theory
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The Effects of Indulgence on Motivation and Emotions
can be balanced by someone’s subjective belief and motivation. The outcome of this study
presented that indulging into bad behavior is not just an energy deficit problem but there are a lot
of personal factors involved in the decision making. Present research showed that the connection
between self-control and ego depletion is an important one in the psychology. Because humans
need self-control to achieve their goals but their self-control is limited to a certain amount, when
the maximum amount is reached their ego is depleted and human will have less self-control. The
fact that indulgence can be a consequence of ego depletion is investigated in prior studies that
show how ego depletion can cause indulgence (Baumeister, Sparks, Stillman & Vohs, 2008). In
their study they show that ego depletion had an effect on indulgence when researching dieters
and non-dieters. This study showed that dieters with a depleted ego would eat a lot more food
than non-dieters with a depleted ego. The distinction between dieters and non-dieters showed
that ego depletion does not simply increase the lust for unhealthy food. Rather, ego depletion
will cause the personal defenses that guides behavior to weaken. This way personal intentions
can be avoided with a depleted ego because it undermines the willpower to stop you from
indulging (Baumeister, Sparks, Stillman & Vohs, 2008). When somebody’s ego is depleted this
will lead to a minimal self-control and that can lead to making bad decisions or decisions that go
against somebody’s intentions (Baumeister, Sparks, Stillman & Vohs, 2008). Meanwhile the
term ego depletion is used to refer to a temporary limitation in somebodies self-control that can
lead to behavior that goes against their personal intentions. Because people have a limited
availability of self-control, they are more likely to indulge, especially if the mental capacity is
exerted at the time. Unfortunately, this is not the only reason why people indulge.
Shafir, Simonson and Tversky (1993) showed that people will be more likely to indulge
when they have specific reason to give into the temptation (to reward/ to comfort). Shafir,
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The Effects of Indulgence on Motivation and Emotions
Simonson and Tyversky (1993) researched the reasons to indulge in a very organized fashion.
They had seven research questions to investigate the phenomena indulgence. Their fifth research
question was: ‘What’s the impact of a specific reason for choice with that of a disjunction of
reasons?’ They investigated this question by asking participants if they would like to go on a
holiday after their finals in school had ended and had failed or passed the exam or not knowing
the result of the exam. In the beginning of the experiment the questionnaire noted that going on
the holiday would be a bad idea since it will cost a lot of money and you are trying to save up
some money. The experimenters expected that the participants would consciously go on the trip
although it would have negative consequences for their money saving goal. In this experiment
the participant would have a specific justification to go on the holiday namely, to reward or to
comfort themselves. But the participant may be doubtful of taking the holiday when the outcome
of the exam is pending, like the participants in the control condition. The results show that the
indeterminacy of reasons for going on a holiday discourages many students from buying the
holiday. Not knowing the outcome of the exam makes it less compelling to indulge and spend
the money than having a justification to take the trip. In other words: somebody can choose
something against their intentions when they know it will comfort or reward them. However
somebody will be less likely to indulge if the consequences are uncertain. This is also known as
the disjunction effect. Kivetz and Simonson (2002) showed in their research that someone is
more likely to indulge when the consequences of indulging will not take place in the near future.
In other words, if indulging into bad behavior has no immediate consequence it’s more likely for
someone to indulge (Kivetz, Simonson, 2002).
The previous paragraph showed that we are more likely to indulge when we have a
certain reason or justification for the behavior. Taylor, Webb and Sheeran (2013) investigated
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The Effects of Indulgence on Motivation and Emotions
the role of justifications for indulgence in explaining the gap between intentions and action.
Their studies were done on dieters that are trying to refrain from eating unhealthy food. The first
study shows that there are six different justifications people normally use to eat unhealthy food:
the availability of unhealthy food, intentions to compensate at a later time, exception to the norm,
the unhealthy food is deserved, curiosity compels indulgence and the food was irresistible. These
justifications showed a positive correlation with the increased intake of unhealthy foods. The
second study tries to replicate these findings but also investigates if the use of justifications had a
stronger effect on participants with a strong or a weak intention. The same correlation was found
between justifications and indulging into unhealthy food, but there was a stronger effect for
participants with a strong intention to withdraw from unhealthy food. This finding suggests that
the more people justify their indulgence, the more unhealthy snacks they consume despite
holding strong intentions (Taylor, Webb & Sheeran, 2013). In the previous outcomes we see that
there is a strong connection between availability of justifications and the intentions to limit
indulgence. In this thesis we will investigate whether you will find a similar study on
justification for people that are trying to save money.
There are some studies that show that indulging into bad behavior will have negative
consequences on the motivation to continue a goal in the future (Baumeister & Heatherton,
1996). In this study the experimenters divide the cause of indulgence into two reasons: under
regulation and misregulation of the self. Under regulation of the self is when a person is unable
to use self-control to complete a task. Misregulation of the self is when someone cannot
complete the task because they used too much effort on a different goal in their life. The
experimenters see negative consequences due to under- or misregulation of the self because this
might cause a snowball effect on future goal persistency. When someone decides to indulge into
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The Effects of Indulgence on Motivation and Emotions
bad behavior that person might have trouble to reestablish his self-control for a future task, and if
the person does not re-establish his control on this goal the next goal would be even harder to
accomplish which leads to the snowball effect. In this point of view we see that violation of a
goal can be demotivating to continue effort and will result in a deterioration of performance.
This means that prior literature showed that people who had already violated their goal, were
more likely to indulge for a second time. This is also known as the ‘What the hell effect’. People
that have failed to reach a goal once might indulge the second time thinking that they already
broke their promise once (Soman & Cheema, 2004). Their hypothesis is that attaining a goal has
more negative sides then having no goal at all because of the negative effects failing a goal
would have on their motivation to continue.
In some cases you see that people can use indulgence as a self-reward, for example: ‘I
didn’t eat that cake at the wedding yesterday, so tonight I will have this dessert’. In this case
someone uses a justification to indulge into negative behavior while they actually promised their
selves to avoid the temptation. Indulgence can be justified by a self-concept boost of any kind of
a prior ‘good behavior’ although a boost in self-concept is a necessary condition to facilitate
indulgence (Mukhopadhyay & Johar, 2009). Mukhodapyay and Johar (2009) showed two types
of justification underlying indulgence: entitlement (by working hard) or prior restraint. Further
they see that justification by entitlement boosts the self-concept in a positive way, while prior
restraint operates independently of the self-concept. The studies above showed us that
indulgence will likely lead to goal abandonment or will lead to more excuses to justify their
indulgences. Mukhodapyay and Johar (2009) showed that indulgence could lead to a boost in
self-concept and therefore could lead to more motivation towards someone’s initial goal. The
next paragraph will show a few more examples of these positive effects when indulging.
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The Effects of Indulgence on Motivation and Emotions
The positive sides of indulgence lie in the impact of emotions that are experienced right
after the violation of the goal. Regret makes the pain of indulgent choices more salient and
increases the motivation for self-control, reducing the likelihood of future indulgence
(Ramanathan & Williams, 2007). When exerting in effort in order to progress towards a goal,
self-regulation resources become depleted, thereby decreasing the ability to proceed with selfregulation. Therefore it may be beneficial in some cases to temporarily deviate strategically from
direct goal pursuit, in order to replenish self-regulatory resources and eventually attain the goal.
Also taking a break of the direct goal can bring the experience of positive emotions and enhance
their ability to develop coping strategies, all of which contribute to increasing the likelihood of
final goal attainment (Coelho Do Vale, 2007). As stated above, there are some circumstances
were indulgence can have a positive effect or a negative. In this thesis we try to investigate
whether the same effect can be found in people that are trying to refrain from spending a lot of
money. Due to prior research the expectancy is that the results will show some positive but
mostly negative effects of indulgence on emotions, goal persistency etc.
In the first study we investigate whether indulging from your goal will have positive sides
towards your motivation and emotions. We investigate the motivation for someone’s initial goal
after they had indulged in behavior contrary to their goal. This thesis consists of three studies
that try to determine the positive and negative sides of indulgence. The first study focusses on
the differences in goal persistence when someone is indulging to comfort themselves or when
someone is indulging to reward themselves. The second study looks a lot like the first study but
the participants in this study have to give a specific reason to indulge instead of being placed in a
comfort or reward condition. After identifying the reasons for indulgence the second study
investigated if this specific reason will lead to an increase or a decrease in motivation for later
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The Effects of Indulgence on Motivation and Emotions
goal persistency. The final study investigated participants attitude towards their goal after giving
an acceptable or unacceptable reason to indulge.
Study one: The effect of indulging with a justification
People often motivate themselves to make goals for the future that will improve their
lives in general. But to attain these goals, you need a lot of self-regulation to not indulge and fall
back into bad habits. Most of the time when people fall back to their old (negative) behavior
there is a reason to it. In this study we investigate if there is a difference between a negative
reason to indulge like to comfort yourself, versus a positive reason to indulge or no reason at all.
The hypothesis of this study is that participants who justify indulgence with a positive reason
will have less trouble continuing with their initial goal then participants with a negative reason.
This experiment also tried to investigate the positive and negative effects of indulgence on
motivational and emotional level between the three conditions. It will be interesting to see if a
positive or a negative reason to indulge will have a greater effect on emotions and motivation to
reach your goal afterwards.
Method
This study contained 321 participants that all are college students at the University of
Tilburg. We interviewed 123 male students, 135 female students and 63 students with an
unknown gender. The mean age of the participants is 21.29. We also made a demographic divide
in housing situation. We interviewed 155 participants that still live at their parents’ house and
146 people that live on their own. All participants cooperated to fill in a short questionnaire with
no monetary reward. The participants were interviewed in the lunchroom or classroom at the
University of Tilburg.
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The Effects of Indulgence on Motivation and Emotions
Procedure
The participants were asked to fill in a form which would take about five minutes of their
time. On the top of the experiment the students filled in their age and gender. Unfortunately a lot
of participants did not notice this information and therefore we have some missing values in this
category. In this experiment the participants did not know that the study contained three
conditions: reward, comfort and control. Each participant filled in only one of the three
conditions and all the conditions were given out at random. Every condition started with a story
about someone that tried to save money for two months with success.
“Imagine the next situation: Two months ago you found out that you have been spending too
much money the past few months. You had a clue that you were spending a lot of money but you
didn’t expect it to be this bad. You savings account is empty and normal account is almost
running out of funds. If you continue like this you cannot afford to pay your fixed charges. You
decide to cut back in spending’s and start to save some money. You succeeded and until this day
you did not spend your money on unnecessary goods.
Today you have a very important exam. You have to pass this exam to move on to next year. This
is your final opportunity. After the exam you check online and you see that you have
passed/failed.
Later that day a friend calls. He has an excellent bargain for a trip to Budapest in about two
weeks. You want to go; its been a while that you went on a nice trip. Also you think you can
comfort/reward yourself for passing/failing the exam. Going on the trip will bring a lot of extra
expenses. You think about how your saving goal has gone in the last few weeks and how going to
Budapest will affect your goal to save up some money. You decide to make an exception on your
goal to save money and you call your friend to say that you are in!”
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The Effects of Indulgence on Motivation and Emotions
As stated above this study contained three conditions. The reward condition described
that you had passed the important exam and that you are very proud because you can continue to
the next year. You decided to go on the trip in order to reward yourself. The comfort condition
had a slight change in the scenario. You have failed the exam you suppose to pass to continue to
the next year. Although you still decided to make an exception and to go to Budapest just to
comfort yourself. The control condition is the same as the above conditions only the sentence
about your result is left out, so the participant doesn’t know whether he or she has passed or
failed the exam.
After reading the scenario, all participants indicated to what extent they would feel the
following emotions in this situation: happiness, satisfaction, pride, regret, guilt and frustration.
The first six questions after the scenario were about the emotions towards indulging to spend
money (book the trip) while you suppose to save money. All the emotions are measured on a
seven point Likert-scale. After the questions on emotional level the next three questions were
about the participants behavior and motivation towards the initial goal: saving money. Would
booking a trip feel like failure? How would you feel to continue the saving after u got home from
Budapest? How motivated would you be to continue after making the decision to go on a holiday
to Budapest? The final question states: ‘The next day a friend calls, he asks if you want to go to a
festival next Saturday. There will be a lot of good bands and you want to see all of your friends
again. But if you decide to go there will be a lot of unnecessary expenses. Would you go?’ All
these questions were measured on a seven point Likert-scale were one stands for ‘Never’ and
seven for ‘Most likely’. The last question is a final test if indulgence will have a positive or a
negative effect on the willingness to carry on with your goal (goal persistence) and to see if there
are differences between the conditions.
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The Effects of Indulgence on Motivation and Emotions
Results
To investigate how all of the ten dependent variables would compare between the three
conditions, we started to analyze our data by running a multivariate analysis of variance
(MANOVA). The test contained significant values for the emotions happiness p =.02,
satisfaction p =.00, pride p =.00, and guilt was barely insignificant with p =.05 (see Table 1). The
table shows that there are only significant effects for the positive emotions in the three conditions.
The next step was to run a post hoc multiple comparisons test with Bonferonni to see in
which conditions these emotions differ significantly. The emotion happiness showed to be
significantly higher in the reward condition than in the comfort conditions with p = .02, σ =.18
and μ difference = .48. Satisfaction showed to be significantly higher in the reward condition
then comfort condition with p = .01, σ = .19 and μ difference = .69. For pride the reward
condition had significantly higher results then the comfort condition with p =.00 and μ difference
= 1.10 with σ =.20.
After the MANOVA and post hoc analysis the experimenters decided to split the
participants concerning their living situation and rerun the analysis. As noted in the method
section every participant had to fill in if they lived on their own or with their parents. The
experimenters considered the fact that people that still live at their parents would have less
trouble to indulge. Their monthly costs are considerable lower and therefore they have less
reason to continue saving money. Therefore the experimenters did a split file analysis between
participants that lived on their own, with their parents or had a different living situation. In the
split file analysis there were 155 participants that lived with their parents and 146 participants
that lived on their own. The analysis continued by running a MANOVA on the split files: living
at home or living on your own. Living on your own showed significant results for happiness, F(2,
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The Effects of Indulgence on Motivation and Emotions
321) = 4.53, p = .01, pride, F(2, 321) = 6.78, p = .00, and guilt, F(2, 321) = 3.22, p = .04. The
participants that lived with their parents showed significant results for satisfaction, F(2, 321) =
3.19, p = .04, and pride, F(2, 321) = 8.86, p = .00.
The final analysis is also done on the separate split files but now the experimenters focus
on the correlations between the ten emotions and the participants goal persistency. The reason
for this final analysis is to see whether the participants emotions had an influence on their future
goal persistency (see Table 3). The home living participants showed significant effects on the
emotion: satisfaction, F(2, 321) =3.19, p =.04, 2 = .04. Also pride at participants that still lived
at home was significant, F(2, 321) = 8.86, p=0.00, 2 = .10. There is an significant effect found
on the emotion happiness for the participants that live on their own, F(2, 321) = 4.53, p = .01, 2
= .06. Pride also had a significant effect for participants that live on their own, F(2, 321) = 6.78,
p =.00, 2 = .09. Guilt is also vital for the people living on their own. This is the only negative
emotion that is significant, F(2, 321) = 3.22, p = 0.04, 2 = 0.04 (see Table 3, 4 and 5). As
shown in Table 5 there also was a category for a ‘different’ living situation, unfortunately there
were no significant effects found in this category.
Discussion
The hypothesis of this study stated that participants with a positive justification to indulge
would have less trouble to continue their goal then participants with a negative reason or no
reason at all. Although the hypothesis was not confirmed, the study had some significant results
between the reason to indulge and the participants emotions. When a participant had a positive
reason to indulge the mean of some of the positive emotions were higher than a participant with
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The Effects of Indulgence on Motivation and Emotions
a negative reason. These results show us that participants with a positive reason to indulge still
feels positive after indulging into bad behavior and therefore still have higher levels of positive
emotions towards their initial goal, which would make them more likely to succeed than the
people that feel negative emotions towards their goal. So although the hypothesis was not
confirmed, this study still showed the effects of a positive justification on participant’s positive
emotions. These finding may indicate that negative justifications will lead to more negative
emotions but unfortunately there were no significant results for negative emotions. Because this
study contained students that live on their own and students that live with their parents the
experimenters decided to analyze these groups separately. The thought process behind this was
that participants that live on their own would have a higher priority to save money than
participants that still live of their parent’s funds. The results show that there are only significant
correlations between emotions and goal persistency within the participants that live on their own.
These results showed that the experimenters thought process was correct and therefore it would
be better to use participants that actually need to save money for future research.
After the data collecting had ended the experimenters noticed that a few participants did
not manage to fill in the demographics section at the top of the experiment while every
participant was reminded to fill in the top section at the start of the interview. So the first
limitation for this study is that not all the data was completed fully and had some missing values.
Another downside of this study is that the participants were all students below the age of 30.
Students are normally very good participants for scientific research but for this study students
were not the most reliable participants when it comes to saving money. The reason is that most
students do not really care about saving money, especially when they still live at their parents’
house. For the most students their priority lies in partying and having a good time before settling
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The Effects of Indulgence on Motivation and Emotions
down and getting a fulltime job. For a follow up study my advice would be to select participants
that are working full or part time and therefor have a higher motivation to actually save money.
This could produce some significant results, and it also may be interesting to compare the results
with our study to see the differences in the saving goals between students and working adults.
In this study the participants were given a justification beforehand to indulge. Study two
tries to investigate if there is a different effect if the participants gave their own reason to indulge
and if thinking about this reason would lead to more motivation and future goal persistency.
Study two: The effects reasons to stop saving money on future goal persistency
Introduction
This experiment is conducted to identify the specific reasons for people to indulge. After
identifying the reasons for indulgence the experimenters investigated if this specific reason will
lead to an increase or a decrease in motivation for later goal persistency. Further, study two
investigates the relationship of the reason to indulge among the variables: motivation and
persistence, the chance of giving in again, and the perceived importance of the task at hand
(saving money). The first hypothesis for study two: ‘Giving a good reason to indulge will lead to
a higher motivation to finish the goal in the future than someone with a bad reason to indulge.’
The second hypothesis: ‘Giving a good reason to indulge will lead to better persistence in saving
money for the future.’ The third hypothesis stated: ‘Giving a bad reason to indulge will lead to a
higher chance of indulgence in the future.’ The fourth and final hypothesis stated: ‘Giving a good
reason to indulge will lead to a higher value of the initial goal.’
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The Effects of Indulgence on Motivation and Emotions
Method
In this study we used an online questionnaire in Qualtrics to examine our participants.
Because of the online questions we could interview a lot of participants and therefore the N =
270 but the interviews we could use in our analyses were 153 (57 male, 96 female, M age=30.24).
The other 117 participants had a lot of missing values or just not met our expectations for this
interview. In this study most of the participants were gathered by online media like Facebook
and some participants got the interview by E-mail. The interview started with a small text
explaining that the upcoming questions will be about saving money and it will only take up to
five minutes. The second question asked the participants if they had spent money on a product
that they actually could not afford in the last few weeks. Because the entire interview is about
indulgence, all the participants that filled in ‘no’ were send to the end of the interview. The next
question states: ‘What was the reason for spending the money on the product you actually could
not afford?’ This question is followed by a seven point Likert-scale on which the participants
could rate their reason for spending the money they actually wanted to save, looking back on that
situation. The last four questions of the interview we used to check if the participants still have
the motivation to carry on their initial goal. In the first question the participant needed to answer:
‘How motivated are you to continue not spending any additional money?’ The second question
asked if the participants expect to persist in their saving goals. The third question wanted an
estimate of the chance that the participant would go and spend money again on a product they
cannot afford. The final question is an overall check on how important saving money is to the
participant. These last four questions were used as independent variables in our analyses. Before
completing the interview the participants had to fill in some demographic information about their,
age, education and gender. At the end of the interview we thanked the participants for their time.
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The Effects of Indulgence on Motivation and Emotions
Results
At first regression analysis was used to see the relations between the rating of the reason
to indulge and the variables motivation, persistence, chance of giving in, and the perceived value
of saving. Unfortunately the regression analysis showed no significant effects between rating of
the participant’s reason and the variables (see Table 4). The first hypothesis expected to find a
relation between the rating of the reason to indulge and the motivation. Regression analysis
showed no significant relationship between the participant’s reasons to indulge and the
motivation to save money R²= .01 (p = .36). The second hypothesis expected an effect between
the participants persistence and the reason to indulge. Regression analysis showed R²= .00 (p
= .88) using persistence as dependent variable and rating as independent variable showed no
significant relations. The third hypothesis stated: ‘Giving a bad reason to indulge will lead to a
higher chance of indulgence in the future.’ Regression analysis showed: R²= .01 (p =.30) so
unfortunately no effect was found. The final hypothesis stated that there would be a relation
between the reason to indulge and the value of the initial goal. In the regression analysis the
value showed: R²= .01 (p =.40) (see Table 6). Because there were no significant results in the
initial regression analysis. The experimenters decided to investigate whether the dependent
variables would correlate between each other. When comparing the persistency to save money
with the estimate chance to indulge again in the future a negative correlation is found (R² = .11,
p = .00). The analyses between goal persistency and the value placed on money showed a
positive correlation (R² = .38, p = .00). The motivation for not indulging also correlated
positively with the persistency to save money (R² = .21, p = .00). Motivation also correlated
positively with the value placed on money (R² = .38, p= .00) (see Table 7).
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The Effects of Indulgence on Motivation and Emotions
After the general analyses the experimenters re-categorized the participants reasons to indulge on
how acceptable they were. In this experiment the participants gave the reason ‘attraction of the
product’ most of the time, 27% (see Table 6). Re-categorizing the reasons to indulge brought
some troubles for the experimenters. Some participants gave multiple reasons that could be
interpreted into multiple categories. In these cases the experimenters tried to interpret the best
reason to indulge or took the reason on which the participants emphasize the most. This is the
case for the categories hunger and shortage of time. Participants gave the reason ‘I was hungry
and I did not had the time to prepare dinner/lunch so therefore I needed to buy this.’ Most of
these reasons were categorized as hunger to be the main reason of indulgence (see Table 8).
The experimenters also tried to investigate if there would be an effect if they re-rated the
reasons to indulge. It is likely for the participants to rate their own reason higher just because it
was their personal reason. For example a lot of participants rated the reason: ‘I really needed it’
as high, while in the experimenters view this is a pretty weak argument. The ratings of the
reasons done by the experimenters showed a different outcome then the ratings of the
participants (see Table 9). Table 9 shows that the participants did rate their own reason higher
than the experimenters. After re-rating the reasons to indulge the analysis showed some
significant results for the variables persistence and chance (see Table 7).
Discussion
At the start of this experiment we expected to find a number of effects between our
variables: chance of indulging to old behavior, motivation, persistence and the personal value of
the goal to save money. Unfortunately the four hypothesis for this study cannot be confirmed
because no significant effect was found between the dependent variables and the participant’s
reason to indulge. Although there were a lot of correlations found between the dependent
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The Effects of Indulgence on Motivation and Emotions
variables themselves. Some of the dependent variables correlated negatively while some
variables correlated barely correlated, and some variables correlated positively towards each
other. When looking at the positive correlations it is clear that if motivation lowers, the
persistency and the value of money saving in general also lowers. This also means that when
participants are more motivated to save money they also have a higher persistency to the saving
goal in the future or place a higher value on saving money in general. Another positive
correlation in the analyses is between the value of saving money and the persistence to save
money. This correlation is rather obvious though, because it is just common sense that a
participant with a higher value of saving money also has a higher persistency to save their money.
The negative correlations in the analyses are found between the variables: money value
vs. the chance of indulging in the future, and persistence vs. the chance of indulging in the future.
The first correlation is pretty straight forward, if a participant had a high value of money they do
not want to indulge in buying unnecessary goods. The second correlation states that the
participants who actively want to persist in saving money have a lower estimated chance to
indulge in money spending behavior.
When the ratings of the researchers were analyzed the statistics did come up with some
significant correlations. The data showed a positive and significant correlation between goal
persistence and the chance of indulging again. These results indicate that the more a participant
agreed with the reason, the higher the persistence to attain the saving goal is. There was also a
positive correlation between the rated reason and the chance of indulging again. This result
showed that having a good reason to indulge leads to a higher chance to indulge again. This
result seems a bit odd but it basically says that if you can find good reasons for yourself to
indulge, you are more likely to indulge again in the future. This result shows that it is better to be
19
The Effects of Indulgence on Motivation and Emotions
bad at finding reasons to indulge.
Study two had a few limitations to deal with, starting with the experimenters needing to
categorize their participants reasons into categories instead of letting the participants categorize
their reason in the first place. Also re-rating the reasons to indulge is a limitation for this study,
although these ratings did show some significant correlations in the results. When the
experimenters tried to re-categorize the participants reasons a few problems came to the table.
Some participants wrote: ‘I liked it and I needed it’. This way it was really hard for the
experimenters to interpret all the reasons and to categorize them correctly, a few reasons were
coded as 999 because they were too vague and some difficult reasons were categorized by the
experimenters estimation. Therefore the re-rating and re-categorizing of the experimenters made
the study susceptible for subjective interpretation and should be noted as a limitation. Study two
also had some missing values in the open ended part of the interview due to participants not
understanding or not correctly reading the question. For example some participants wrote for
their reason to indulge: ‘I went to the clothing store and bought a few pants’, instead of ‘I was in
need of pants’. So if all the participants had given a correct reason, the study would have had a
larger power and the results would have been more valid.
For the next study the focus is on the nature of the reason to indulge and the effect of that
reason on the future goal persistency. The experimenters try to investigate if there is an effect
between participants that have to give an acceptable reason vs. an unacceptable reason to indulge
on their perceived usefulness of continuing their goal, the feeling of failure to save money and
the perceived difficulty of continuing the initial goal This way we would like to expand the
outcomes of our first two experiments by seeing if a negative reason would have a larger or
smaller effect then a positive reason to indulge. Future research should be care for using open
20
The Effects of Indulgence on Motivation and Emotions
ended questions in an online survey because in our case this leaded to a lot of missing values
because participants did not read the question properly. Also some of the answers given in open
ended questions give a few reasons and then they are susceptible to the subjective interpretation
of the experimenters.
Study three: Acceptable versus unacceptable reasons to indulge and the effects
Introduction
This study investigates the effect of an acceptable or unacceptable reason to indulge, and
the effect on future goal persistency. This study contained two conditions. One condition for an
acceptable reason and one condition for the unacceptable reason. The interview started with a
short scenario: “You have planned to stay away from buying unnecessary products till the end of
february. At the start of february your friends planned a weekend out, and because you don’t see
your friend quite often you really want to go on the trip.” Then the participants were asked to
give an acceptable reason/unacceptable reason to go on the trip with your friends. After they
filled in their reason they had to image they decided to go on the trip and answer three question
on a seven point Likert-scale. The next three questions measured the dependent variables:
perceived usefulness of continuing their goal, the feeling of failure to save money, the perceived
difficulty of continuing the initial goal. The hypothesis of this study is that when people need to
give an unacceptable reason to go on the trip they would be more likely to indulge in their bad
habits in the future. So participants that had to give an unacceptable reason should have less goal
persistency then people that gave an acceptable reason. The second hypothesis of this study is:
Imaging a situation and giving an acceptable or unacceptable reason would influence a
participants persistency towards that goal.
Method
21
The Effects of Indulgence on Motivation and Emotions
Participants in this study were acquired by a select sample of students in the cafeteria of
the University of Tilburg. In total there were N = 150 participants. Although three participants
gave a wrong reason on the first question of the interview and therefore we have three interviews
as missing. There were a total of 41 males and 100 females, nine participants forgot to fill in
their age and sex and therefore are coded as missing. The mean age of the participants is 23.34
years old. The experiment started with a scenario for the participants to read. “The participants
were asked to imagine themselves in a situation where they are in need of a new laptop. There is
a student discount available but you really need to save some money. Just before the discount
becomes available you get invited to come along on a short trip with your friends and you really
want to go. If you decide to go on this trip it will costs you too much money and you won’t be
able to afford the laptop.” After this starting scenario the participants are split into two
conditions. The participants in the first condition had to give an acceptable reason to go on the
trip and participants in the second condition had to give an unacceptable reason to go on the trip.
After they gave this reason they had to answer three questions that could be answered on a seven
point Likert-scale on which only the first and the seventh value was labeled. These three
questions measured the dependent variables of this experiment were: (1) the perceived usefulness
of continuing to save money for the laptop, (2) the feeling of failure to save money after paying
for the trip, (3) the perceived difficulty of continuing your saving goal after paying for the trip.
The first question that measures our dependent variable states: ‘After paying for the weekend
would you feel that the saving goal is not worth continuing?’ The second question: ‘After paying
for the weekend would you feel that there isn’t much sense in saving for a laptop?’ And the last
question: ‘Do you think that after paying for the weekend that you could easily continue with
your saving goal?’ The first two questions had the same labels on the Likert-scale, were one
22
The Effects of Indulgence on Motivation and Emotions
stands for: ‘I would not have this feeling at all’, and seven stands for: ‘I would surely have the
feeling’. For the last question filling in a one would correspond with: ‘I surely do not think so’
and filling in a seven would correspond with: ‘I surely think so’. At the start of every interview
the participants were reminded to fill in their personal feelings and therefore were not allowed to
share their answers until after the interview. This way the participants cannot influence each
other’s opinions before the experiment has ended.
Results
First of all we analyzed the descriptives of the participants acceptable/unacceptable reasons to
join the trip. Participants in condition one gave six different acceptable reasons to join the trip: (1)
I have enough money, (2) Social experiences are more valuable, (3) Laptop can be bought later,
(4) Have a good time is more important,(5) The trip will release stress. The participants were
asked to write down this acceptable reason in an open ended question and the experimenters
categorized their reasons into the six categories after the study ended. The results will give a
clear view of the participants reasons to go on the trip with your friend (see Table 10).
The participants in the second condition gave an unacceptable reason to go on the trip.
Their answers were categorized into eight different categories: (1) Missing the experience, (2)
Really need the laptop, (3) Peer pressure, (4) Outside budget, (5) Relaxation, (6) Other
obligations, (7) Remaining reasons, (8) Participant did not understand the question and gave an
acceptable reason. The category remaining reasons was made for the participants that gave a
very original answer that most likely would not come up again. For example one participant
answered that they thought fear was an unacceptable reason not to go on the trip. The final
category is made for four participants that misread the question and gave an acceptable reason to
go on the trip while an unacceptable reason was asked (see Table 11).
23
The Effects of Indulgence on Motivation and Emotions
After the participants gave the acceptable/unacceptable reason to go on the trip they had to fill in
three questions on a seven point Likert-scale that measured the dependent variables of this study.
The regression analyses showed that the condition of the participants had no significant effect on
the three dependent variables. The outcomes of the regression analysis showed no significant
relations between the conditions and the dependent variables. Whether a participant was
grouped in the first or the second condition did not matter for the effect on the dependent
variables because all results were insignificant.
The next step of the analysis was to see if the dependent variables correlated on each
other, independent of the condition. In this analysis the experimenters ran correlations between
each independent variable and the results showed only significant correlations. The second
variable, the feeling of failure after indulging, correlated negatively with the perceived difficulty
to pick up saving (p =.01, R =-.23). The first variable, perceived usefulness to continue the goal,
correlated positively with the feeling of failure (p =.00, R = .39). Also the second variable, the
feeling of failure after indulging correlated negatively with, the perceived difficulty to pick up
saving (p =.01, R = -.23). Then the experimenters tried to investigate if there was a correlation
between the demographics of the participants and the dependent variables. There was no
significant effect found between the first dependent variable and age (p =.51, R² =.00) or gender
(p =.89, R² =.01). The second dependent variable also showed no effect for age (p =.08, R² =.02)
or gender (p =.13, R² =.02). The last and third dependent variable also showed no effect on age
(p =.18, R² =.01) or gender (p =.30, R² =.01). In order to analyze this study the experimenters
made a scale using the dependent variables. The reason for this scale was to check if there could
be an effect between the conditions and the dependent variables. Unfortunately this scale showed
a Cronbach’s alfa (α) = .63 so this was not used in the analysis of our results.
24
The Effects of Indulgence on Motivation and Emotions
Discussion
After collecting the interviews of the participants the experimenters started the analysis
by categorizing all the different reasons to go on the trip. The results shown in Table 6 and Table
7 are very interesting to compare. The first category that stands out is to be a part of the social
experience. A lot of participants thought this was an acceptable reason to go on the trip (79.8%).
But in the second condition a few participants gave the reason: missing a social experience as an
unacceptable reason to go on the trip (11%). These results show that every person has their own
justification to indulge into certain behavior. Another category that stands is peer pressure. Peer
pressure is seen as an acceptable reason for 67.6% of the participants of the first condition. It is
also seen as an unacceptable reason for 20.5% of the participants in condition two. This shows us
that a similar reason to indulge can be seen as justification for one person and reason to avoid for
another person.
The analysis of the data showed no significant results between the dependent values and
the two conditions. Therefore the hypothesis is not verified by the outcomes of these results.
Although if this study had a higher power the chance of finding significant results would have
greatly improved. However the statistics did show some significant correlations between the
dependent variables. The usefulness of continuing to save money correlated negatively with the
difficulty one has to pick up saving again. This correlation showed that a participant with a high
usefulness for continuing will have less trouble picking up the saving goal again after indulging.
Usefulness of continuing to save money correlated positive with the feeling of failure. This
indicates that participants that have a high usefulness to continue saving also have a high feeling
of failure. The final correlation is a negative one between the feelings of failure and the difficulty
of picking up the saving goal. This shows that a participant with a high feeling of failure would
25
The Effects of Indulgence on Motivation and Emotions
have trouble getting motivated to pick up their initial saving goal.
Although this study did not find any significant results for the hypothesis it still would be
viable to replicate this study on a larger scale. For a scientific research the N of 147 is way too
small to find any significant results, especially for a study like this. Also there were some points
of criticism on the experimenter’s setup of the interview. As noted in the methods section, every
participant read the same scenario and then needed to give an acceptable or unacceptable reason.
After they gave the reason there was a section telling you: ‘Imagine: You decide to go on the trip
for the reason you have just given.’ This section was the same for a participant that gave an
acceptable reason as for a participant that gave an unacceptable reason. The section for the
participant with an unacceptable reason should be: ‘Despite the reason you just given you decide
to go on the trip.’ Only a few participants noticed this at the end of the experiment. I think it is
safe to say that the students of the University of Tilburg would have understand the question
despite the slight failure. Although this small mistake would not affect the significance of our
results, it should be noted because it might have caused a slight misunderstanding by participants
in the second condition. Further limitations for study three lie in the fact that the interviews were
taken in the cafeteria of the University while students were on their lunch break. Although every
participant were told to fill in the interview separate the students might have discussed the
reasons because a lot of the same reasons came from the same table. Students on a lunch break
like to talk among each other and discuss the topic which can be good but not for the validity of
this study. Therefore a controlled setting would have resulted in more personal reasons and
might have led to more significant results.
26
The Effects of Indulgence on Motivation and Emotions
General discussion
This thesis tries to investigate the effects of indulgence on emotions, motivation and goal
persistency. Prior research showed that the reason someone indulges in bad behavior is very
important for the effects on other variables (Taylor, Webb & Sheeran, 2013). The research of
Taylor, Webb and Sheeran (2013) showed a significant correlation between justifications and
indulging again in the future. The results of this study show that the greater usage of
justifications is associated with an increase of consuming unhealthy food. In the first two studies
of this thesis we tried to replicate the findings of these diet studies but then with the situation of
saving money. The hypothesis of study one stated: ‘Participants that justify indulging with a
positive reason will have less trouble continuing with their initial goal then participants with a
negative reason.’ Despite the fact that no significant results were found for the hypothesis of the
first study, there still were some interesting findings. Study one showed some higher results on
positive emotions when the participants were in the reward condition. This could lead to the
theory that if participants feel more positive emotions that can lead to a higher motivation to
continue with their goal in the future and therefore a positive justification might be good for
future goal persistency. Unfortunately no significant effects were found on goal persistency so
this theory is not valid. Study one also showed some significant results after splitting the
participants by housing situation. The participants that lived on their own showed a higher
correlation between goal persistency and their emotions than the people living with their parents.
The experimenter expected the participants that live on their own to have a higher motivation
because they are more affiliated with the goal. These findings are in line with the study of
Baumeister, Tice and Vohs (2007) which results suggest that a strong motivation for a personal
goal can overcome ego depletion. People that live on their own have a higher motivation for
27
The Effects of Indulgence on Motivation and Emotions
saving money and therefore a higher goal persistency that can overcome ego depletion. The
design of study one was basically a direct replica of the study of Shafir, Simonson and Tyversky
(1993). In this study the results did show that a participant is more likely to indulge if they have a
certain justification for their behavior rather then no justification at all.
The main hypothesis of study two stated: ‘Participants with a positive reason to indulge
will have a higher motivation to finish the goal than a participant with a negative reason to
indulge.’ Although all the hypotheses in this study were not confirmed or denied, the study did
show some interesting findings. After the experimenters rerated the reasons to indulge there were
significant effects found between the ratings of the reasons to indulge and the participants goal
persistency. These results showed that a higher rating of the reason would lead to a higher goal
persistence. Study two also found a positive correlation between the rating of the reason to
indulge and the chance to indulge again in the future. Although these results do not correspond
with the findings of Taylor, Webb and Sheeran (2013), these results do correspond with the
outcomes of Cochran and Tesser (1996). Cochran and Tesser (1996) showed the ‘what the hell
effect’ that stated that indulging in the past will lead to more indulgence in the future. This
corresponds with the findings of study two in the way that a higher rating on your reason to
indulge will lead to a higher chance to indulge again in the future.
The first hypothesis of study three stated: ‘Imaging a situation and giving an acceptable
or unacceptable reason would influence a participants persistency towards that goal.’ Although
study three did not find any effects for the hypothesis, the results did show some significant
correlations between the dependent variables. Feelings of failure correlated positively with the
perceived difficulty to continue the goal. The dependent variable, the feeling of failure after
indulging, correlated negatively with the perceived difficulty to continue the goal in the future.
28
The Effects of Indulgence on Motivation and Emotions
These results are also in line with the what the hell effect in the sense that if someone has
indulged, the feelings of failure will increase which leads to a higher perceived difficulty of the
task which both lead to more chance of indulgence in the future on the same goal. Therefore past
indulgence can easily lead to future indulgence on the same goal (Cochran & Tesser, 1996).
The outcomes of study one and two were surprising due to the fact that no significant
correlations were found. Recent studies like Taylor, Webb and Sheeran (2013) or Shafir,
Simonson and Tyversky (1993) showed significant correlations between justifications and
indulgence. Although study one and two in this thesis were about saving money and not about
indulging from a diet, the same correlation was suspected between the justifications and the
dependent variables. This showed an inconsistency of results between the findings of this thesis
and prior research. The inconsistency between study one, two and prior research can be
explained on a few different levels. First off, prior research investigated participants unhealthy
snacking habits. Justifications might just have a different effect on saving money than on
unhealthy snacking behavior or might have no effect at all. For more inconsistencies between
past research and this thesis see the limitations below.
Theoretical and practical implications
This thesis tries to contribute to society in a practical sense so that every day people can
have information on indulgence so they can use this to obtain their goals easier. In particular this
thesis gives information on the factors that come into play when a person is trying to pick up
their goal after indulging. Most people have an experience with indulgence by trying to quit
smoking or drinking or eating unhealthy. Therefore the information in this thesis can be useful
for a wide range of people in a practical sense. The experimenters try to contribute to the existing
theoretical literature on indulgence and the positive and negative effects on future motivation on
29
The Effects of Indulgence on Motivation and Emotions
that particular goal. Unfortunately the studies in this thesis did not find any significant results
supporting evidence for their hypotheses. As described in this introduction there are some
positive but most of all negative effects on motivation that come from indulging from your goal.
The studies in this thesis try to expand the theoretical framework of indulgence by investigating
a few factors that can influence someone’s motivation or emotions in a certain way. For example
what the effect is of a justification on indulgence, or what the effect is of an acceptable or
unacceptable reason to indulge for future motivation. By investigating these factors this thesis
tries to expand the theoretical science on indulgence.
Limitations
The first two studies in this thesis had some flaws in the setup of the experiment. These
flaws might have caused the results to be insignificant or less valid. The first study had some
problems with the demographics section at the top of the experiment, because a lot of
participants just skipped it. Another downside of study one is that the participants were all
students below the age of 30. Students may not have been the most reliable participants when it
comes to saving money. Most students just want to have a good time and do not even think about
money. Because the first study had some trouble finding participants that had a connection with
the saving goal, the second study was done on participants with a higher mean age and the
affiliation with saving was checked at the start of the study.
The first criticism on the second study of this thesis is the fact that the interview is
performed online and therefore you cannot control if the participants actually answered the
questions to their full knowledge. Some participants in this study might have just answered the
questions as fast as possible to continue watching television for example. Because the
participants of study two answered the questionnaire at home and not in a controlled scientific
30
The Effects of Indulgence on Motivation and Emotions
setting the results might be less valid. Also the reasons the participants gave in this study were
put into new categories by the experimenters. By re-categorizing and re-rating the initial data the
study became more susceptible to the subjective interpretation of the researchers. These
criticisms on study one and two might have caused the inconsistent results between these studies
and prior research.
Study three predicts that participants who gave an acceptable reason would have a higher
goal persistency on saving money in the future than participants that should give an unacceptable
reason. A few points of criticism might explain why this study failed to collect any significant
results for the hypotheses. First of all this study had the lowest quantity of participants (N = 141).
In this thesis, the validity of the results might have been stronger if the study would be replicated
on a larger scale. Also the participants were collected in the cafeteria of the University of Tilburg,
and the questionnaire started with an open ended question. The experimenters noticed that a lot
of the participants were not motivated to answer the open ended question due to the fact that they
were on their break and they just wanted to eat. It is understandable that a lot of participants had
a low motivation for this study because the most participants rather just eat in peace and talk
with their peers. The experimenters asked the participants of study three to fill in the
questionnaire on a personal basis but still a lot of the same reasons would appear consecutively.
This indicates that a few participants did discuss the interview, although it could be a
coincidence. The final flaw of study three is in the second condition were there was a small error
in the text that might have confused a few participants. This might be the reason for the ten
participants to fill in an acceptable reason while an unacceptable reason was asked, but I
sincerely doubt it because the textual flaw is after the open ended question.
31
The Effects of Indulgence on Motivation and Emotions
Future research
Study three showed some significant outcomes in their results that might come in handy
for future research. After the experimenters had re-categorized the acceptable and unacceptable
reasons in this study the results showed some interesting categories (Table 8 and 9). Peer
pressure is seen as an acceptable reason for 67.6% of the participants of the first condition. But it
is also seen as an unacceptable reason for 20.5% of the participants in the second condition. This
shows that a justification to indulge is dependent on the eye of the beholder. Some participants
see peer pressure as justification to go on the trip, while some participants see it as unacceptable
reason to go on that trip. The results of this study also show some correlations between the
dependent values. Some of these correlations can form a hypothesis for future research to check
if the results of this study can be replicated. The perceived usefulness of continuing to save
money correlated positively with the feeling of failure after indulging. This can be explained by
the fact that the feeling of failure will lower after someone is back on track towards their initial
goal. Because this is not certain I would advise for future research to investigate this correlation,
and to see if the findings can be replicated. It would also be interesting to investigate if these
variables always correlate positively, or if other factors would have an effect on this as well.
For future researchers that also want to investigate the indulgence of saving money the
advice is to replicate the third study of this thesis. By letting the participants give their own
acceptable or unacceptable reason you know that this reason is significant for that participant.
Also the descriptive shows that justifications differ in the eye of the beholder and therefore an
open ended question is the best way to go here. Also the dependent variables show a lot of
potential by correlating on each other although the N of study three was very low. Finally the
participants were interviewed in a lunchroom. For future research replicating this questionnaire it
32
The Effects of Indulgence on Motivation and Emotions
would be better to test the participants in a controlled scientific setting. The studies in this thesis
are all about indulging to spend money on a product you actually cannot afford. For future
research it also might be interesting to see if indulgence to addicted behaviors like drinking
alcohol or smoking a cigarette would have different or maybe stronger effects on variables like
goal persistency and motivation.
Conclusion
Unfortunately there are no significant results found for all the hypotheses in this research.
Therefore the theoretical knowledge on the effects of indulgence has not expanded. Although we
did not find any significant results it is very important to continue research on this topic. Humans
have a lot of goals in their lives, some goals are met and some goals are never met. By
investigating the effects of indulgence you might find an answer to the question: ‘What does it
take for a human to complete their personal goals?’
33
The Effects of Indulgence on Motivation and Emotions
References
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active self a limited resource?. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 12521265.
Baumeister, R.F., & Heatherton, T.F. (2009) Self-regulation Failure: An overview.
Psychological inquiry: An international journal for the advancement of psychological
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Baumeister, R. F., Sparks, E. A., Stillman, T. F., & Vohs, K. D. (2008). Free will in consumer
behavior: Self-control, ego depletion, and choice. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 18,
4-13
Baumeister, R. F., Vohs, K. D., & Tice, D. M. (2007). The strength model of self-control.
Current Directions in Psychological Science, 16, 351-355
Coelho Do Vale, R. M. R. D. (2007). Consumption breakdowns: On avoiding and embracing
temptations Tilburg: Tilburg University Press.
Hagger, M. S., Wood, C., Stiff, C., & Chatzisarantis, N. L. D. (2010). Ego depletion and the
strength model of self-control: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 136, 495-525.\
Inzlicht, M., Scheimechel, B. J., & Macrae, C. N. (2014). Why self-control seems (but may not
be) limited. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 18, 127-133.
Kivetz, R., & Simonson, I. (2002). Self-control for the righteous: Toward a theory of
precommitment to indulgence. Journal of Consumer Research, 29, 199-217.
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The Effects of Indulgence on Motivation and Emotions
Mukhopadhyay, A., & Johar, G. V. (2009). Indulgence as self-reward for prior shopping restraint:
A justification-based mechanism. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 19, 334-345.
Ramanathan, S., & Williams, P. (2007). Immediate and delayed emotional consequences of
indulgence: The moderating influence of personality type on mixed emotions. Journal of
Consumer Research, 34, 212-223.
Shafir, E., Simonson, I., & Tversky, A. (1993). Reason-based choice. Cognition, 49, 11-36.
Soman, D., & Cheema, A. (2004) When goals are counterproductive: The effects of violation of
a behavioral goal on subsequent performance. Journal of Consumer Research, 31, 52-62.
Taylor, C., Webb, T.L,Sheeran, P. (2013). Justifications for indulgence undermine the translation
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Vohs, K. D., Baumeister, R. F., & Schmeichel, B. J. (2012). Motivation, personal beliefs, and
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Vohs, K. D., & Heatherton, T. F. (2000). Self-regulatory failure: A resource-depletion approach.
Psychological Science, 11, 249-254.
35
The Effects of Indulgence on Motivation and Emotions
Table 1. Dependent variables descriptives
Df
F
p
η²
Blijheid
2
4.02
0.02
0.03
Tevredenheid
2
6.89
0.00
0.04
Trots
2
16.99
0.00
0.10
Spijt
2
1.58
0.21
0.01
Schuld
2
3.01
0.05
0.02
Frustratie
2
2.74
0.07
0.02
Falen
2
0.25
0.78
0.00
Stimuleren
2
1.14
0.32
0.01
Motivatie
2
1.60
0.21
0.01
Intentie
2
1.60
0.21
0.01
36
The Effects of Indulgence on Motivation and Emotions
Table 2. Standard deviations and means of the dependent variables in the three conditions
Reward
Comfort
Control
μ
σ
μ
σ
μ
σ
Blijheid
5.27
1.20
4.79
1.35
4.89
1.34
Tevredenheid
4.57
1.41
3.88
1.34
4.13
1.34
Trots
3.96
1.58
2.86
1.27
3.16
1.41
Spijt
3.66
1.51
4.04
1.50
3.86
1.62
Schuld
3.58
1.61
4.07
1.56
4.02
1.70
Frustratie
2.92
1.69
3.43
1.69
3.04
1.57
Falen
3.49
1.58
3.60
1.64
3.64
1.62
Stimuleren
5.27
1.50
4.96
1.58
5.17
1.51
Motivatie
5.77
1.48
5.47
1.50
5.77
1.32
Intentie
3.12
1.72
2.94
1.64
2.70
1.79
37
The Effects of Indulgence on Motivation and Emotions
Table 3. Regression of goal persistence on the dependent variables
Living with your parents (at home)
Goal
Happiness
Satisfaction
Pride
Regret
Guilt
Frustration
R
Sig
R
Sig
R
Sig
R
Sig
R
Sig
R
Sig
.33
.00
.21
.01
0.22
.01
-.26
.00
.21
.01
-.09
.27
persistence
38
The Effects of Indulgence on Motivation and Emotions
Table 4. Regression of goal persistence on the dependent variables
Living on your own
Goal
Happiness
Satisfaction
Pride
Regret
Guilt
frustration
R
Sig
R
Sig
R
Sig
R
Sig
R
Sig
R
Sig
.15
.71
.01
.88
.13
.12
-.22
.01
-.25
.00
-.09
.30
persistence
39
The Effects of Indulgence on Motivation and Emotions
Table 5. Regression of goal persistence on the dependent variables
Different living situation
Goal
Happiness
Satisfaction
pride
Regret
Guilt
Frustration
R
Sig.
R
Sig.
R
Sig.
R
Sig.
R
Sig.
R
Sig.
.29
.28
-.22
.41
-.64
.82
.07
.81
.29
.27
.06
.83
persistence
40
The Effects of Indulgence on Motivation and Emotions
Table 6. Rating of the reason to indulge and the dependent variables
Rating of reason: participants
Rating of reason: researchers
R²
Df
F
Sig
R²
Df
F
Sig
Motivation
0.006
1
0.86
0.36
0.004
1
0.55
0.46
Persistence
0.000
1
0.02
0.88
0.030
1
4.55
0.04
Chance
0.007
1
1.09
0.30
0.028
1
4.26
0.04
Value
0.005
1
0.72
0.40
0.009
1
1.32
0.25
41
The Effects of Indulgence on Motivation and Emotions
Table 7. Correlations
Motivation
Persistence
Chance
Value
R
Sig
R
Sig
R
Sig
R
Sig
Motivation
1
-
.46
.00
-.21
.01
.30
.00
Persistence
.46
.00
1
-
-.33
.00
.62
.00
Chance
-.21
.01
-.33
.00
1
-
-.35
.00
Value
.30
.00
.62
.00
-.35
.00
1
-
42
The Effects of Indulgence on Motivation and Emotions
Table 8. The reasons re-categorized by the experimenters
Frequency
Percent
Hunger
19
12.4%
Desire
26
17.0%
Addiction
4
2.6%
Sociability
13
8.5%
Time shortage
1
0.7%
Attractiveness
42
27.5%
Impulse
27
17.6%
Comfort
9
5.9%
Other
12
7.8%
43
The Effects of Indulgence on Motivation and Emotions
Table 9. Re-rating scores participants by experimenters
Score
Score
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
15.7%
19.6%
17.0%
16.3%
19.0%
9.2%
3.3%
43.0%
16.1%
24.8%
12.8%
2.7%
participant
Score
0.7%
experimenters
44
The Effects of Indulgence on Motivation and Emotions
Table 10. Descriptive of the acceptable reasons
N = 74
Acceptable reason to indulge
Frequency
Percent
Enough money
4
5.4%
Peer pressure
50
67.6%
Buy the laptop later
4
5.4%
Good company
9
12.2%
To say goodbye to a friend
3
4.1%
Relaxation
4
5.4%
45
The Effects of Indulgence on Motivation and Emotions
Table 11. Descriptive of the unacceptable reasons
N = 73
Unacceptable reason to indulge
Frequency
Percent
Missing the experience
8
11.0%
In need of the laptop
10
13.7%
peer pressure
15
20.5%
Not in budget range
14
19.2%
Relaxation
1
1.4%
Other obligations
13
17.8%
Other reasons
2
2.7%
Acceptable reason was given
10
13.7%
46