RETRACTED: Procrastination, Deadlines, and Performance: Self-Control by Precommitment

“…on overconfidence about positive personal attributes (Larwood and Whittaker, 1977; Svenson, 1981) and is consistent with field evidence on 401(k) investment (Madrian and Shea, 2001), task completion (Ariely and Wertenbroch, 2002), and health club attendance (DellaVigna and Malmendier, 2003).”

“Ariely and Wertenbroch (2002) study the effects of deadlines on procrastination.”

“…has demonstrated that people make attributions about the future self in the same manner as they do for others, by attributing the future self’s behavior to dispositional factors rather than situational ones (Pronin and Ross 2006; Wakslak et al. 2008), and make decisions for the future self using…”

“Indeed, the findings in Ariely and Wertenbroch (2002), and introspection, suggest that many individuals choose to impose shorter deadlines on themselves even when longer ones are in the choice set.”

“The array of self-control strategies that W. Mischel (2014) and others (Ariely & Wertenbroch, 2002; Carlson & Beck, 2009; W. Mischel & Ayduk, 2004; Perry, Hechter, Menec, & Weinberg, 1993; Poston & Foreyt, 2000; Rachlin, 2000; Schelling, 1978; Wansink, 2007) have described is dizzying in both…”

“Ariely and Wertenbroch (2002) document demand for deadlines for classroom and work assignments, a potential sign of commitment demand for dynamically inconsistent individuals.”

“This focusing effect of scarcity increases people’s ability to meet their most immediate needs (Ariely and Wertenbroch 2002; Mullainathan and Shafir 2013, 21).”

“This suggests that disorganization may be more closely related to not following-up on plans earlier formulated rather than to the absence of a plan in the first place ( Ariely & Wertenbroch, 2002; van Eerde, 2000).”

“Effective strategies may involve teaching students to set proximal subgoals for their academic work along with reasonable expectations about the amount of effort required to complete a given task (Ariely & Wertenbroch, 2002; Brooke & Ruthven, 1984; Lamwers & Jazwinski, 1989; Tuckman, 1998).”

“15 This could be why Ariely and Wertenbroch (2002) found that evenly spaced deadlines were the most effective.”

“As research on self-commitment has shown, people understand their own deficits in selfcontrol such as temptation or procrastination and try to work against them by self-imposing deadlines (Ariely & Wertenbroch, 2002).”

“While the studies consistently show a demand for self-imposed deadlines as a commitment device, Ariely and Wertenbroch (2002) find that completion and performance on a nonstudy related task are better with deadlines than without, but Bisin and Hyndman (2014) find the opposite effect.”

“…people often demonstrate that they can predict their future tendencies, termed sophistication, for instance by choosing paths that remove their opportunity to make myopic choices, an activity referred to as pre-commitment (Ainslie, 2001; Ariely and Wertenbroch, 2002; Prelec and Bodner, 2003).”

“In fact, recent research suggested that external deadlines are more effective than self-imposed deadlines in boosting task performance ( Ariely & Wertenbroch, 2002 ).”

“In a more controlled study of commitment devices, Ariely and Wertenbroch (2002) examined whether college students would opt to assign themselves deadlines for three papers they were”

“…sophisticate )1ˆ( = ββ , who is fully aware of her time-inconsistency and make decisions that rationally anticipate these problems.17 The sophisticate will seek external self-control devices to commit herself to acting patiently in the future (Ariely and Wertenbroch 2002), but the naïf will not.”

“That is because precommitment as a strategic self-control device presupposes that consumers are aware of their self-control problems (e.g., Ariely and Wertenbroch 2002; O’Donoghue and Rabin 1999).”

“For example, Ariely and Wertenbroch (2002) showed that undergraduates can voluntarily self-impose deadlines for long-term projects, agreeing in advance that their professors will deduct points if deadlines are not met, and these deadlines in fact do improve academic performance.”

“Exceptions include Ariely and Wertenbroch (2002) on homework assignments, Beshears, Choi, Laibson, and Madrian (2011) on commitment savings devices in the U.S., and Houser et al. (2010) for a laboratory experiment in which subjects gain relevant experience.”

“Ariely and Wertenbroch (2002) randomly assigned students to structure their work according to externally imposed plans (a sequence of deadlines for relevant steps), their own self-generated plans, or a control condition in which only the final project deadline was stipulated.”

“…Akerlof, 1982; O'Donoghue & Rabin, 1999b), as a way of coping with anxiety and fear (Luce, 1998), and in part because they are unrealistically optimistic that they will have more time in the future to make a better informed decision (see incentives for procrastinators, Ariely & Wertenbroch, 2002).”

“rprising from a theoretical perspective, because the effects on behaviour of sensitivity to delay are strong, reliable, and—at least to behavioural economists—at the core of self-control difficulties [12, 52]. Even if rewards introduced by gamification features may have the side effect of reducing delay before self-co…”

“Ariely and Wertenbroch (2002) conduct a field experiment within an executiveducation course at MIT with 99 participants.”

“…e.g., preference for costly single-unit packaging of tempting snacks (Wertenbroch 1998); self-imposed work deadlines with financial penalties (Ariely and Wertenbroch 2002; Bisin and Hyndman 2014); self-imposed financial penalties for smoking or drinking (Giné, Karlan, and Zinman 2010;…”

“Therefore, providing opportunities for individuals to both choose in advance and make a binding decision (or at least a decision where penalties will accompany a reversal) can improve many choices (Ariely & Wertenbroch, 2002).”

“They often impose costly internal deadlines when compared to some forms of beneficial externally imposed deadlines (Ariely and Wertenbroch, 2002).”

“…also research showing that in response to such temptations, people may engage in self-control efforts designed to protect their long-term interests (Ariely & Wertenbroch, 2002; Aspinwall & Taylor, 1997; Fishbach, Friedman, & Kruglanski, 2003; Freitas, Liberman, & Higgins, 2002; Gollwitzer &…”

“WORK AND EFFORT TASKS Ariely and Wertenbroch (2002) — students 73% – – Bisin and Hyndman (2014) — students 31 - 62% – – Kaur et al. (2015) — data-entry workers 36% – – Augenblick et al. (2015) — students 59% 9% $0.”

“According to [72], people who have deadlines that are too stringent tend to have less self-control than those who have deadlines that are not stringent enough.”

“Prescriptive advice for overcoming repeated procrastination typically entails setting specific deadlines, or windows of opportunity, so that people must complete tasks promptly (Ariely and Wertenbroch 2002).”

“In one study, college students who voluntarily self-imposed deadlines for long-term projects turned in better work than students who were able to turn in their work anytime during the semester (Ariely & Wertenbroch, 2002).”

“, 2007) and plans (Ariely and Wertenbroch, 2002; O’Donoghue and Rabin, 2008; Tanner and Carlson, 2009) compared with carefully matched real choices.”

“Ariely and Wertenbroch (2002) show that students who were wary of their own temptation to procrastinate chose early assignment deadlines for themselves and imposed costly penalties for failing to meet the deadlines.”

“…2006), scheduling deadlines for required papers so that they are evenly spaced throughout a semester rather than all due at the end of the semester (Ariely & Wertenbroch, 2002), and regularly buying indulgent foods in small portions rather than buying the more cost-effective larger portions and…”

“These sharp consequences magnify the costs of shirking and make it a less attractive momentary temptation.”

“Goal-setting theory posits that goals serve as a reference standard in a cognitive comparison process of self-evaluation and satisfaction (Latham and Locke, 1991; Locke and Latham, 2002; Bandura, 1989). Heath et al. (1999) explicitly argue that a goal acts as the reference point in the prospect theory (Kahneman and Tv…”

“Rostrolateral PFC would support self-control implemented via highly abstract goals, intentions, and strategies, such as the creation of a binding precommitment to a non-tempting alternative (e.g., joining Weight Watchers) (Ariely and Wertenbroch, 2002; Gul and Pesendorfer, 2001).”

“Ariely and Wertenbroch (2002) let students choose whether to impose deadlines for class assignments and find that many students choose to impose deadlines that constrain their future choices.”

“One promising intervention approach stems from the insight that some people are sophisticated (or selfaware) about their self-control problems (O’Donoghue & Rabin, 1999, 2001) and may seize opportunities to limit their behavior (Ariely & Wertenbroch, 2002).”

“Our study was designed based on a few studies that examined teaching strategies, academic procrastination, and academic achievements (Ariely & Wertenbroch, 2002; Glick & Orsillo, 2015; Hedin, 2012; Klingsieck, Fries, Horz, & Hofer, 2012; Milgram, Dangour, & Ravi, 1992; Morris & Fritz, 2015;…”

“…can use commitment devices such as restricted-access savings accounts to self-regulate their behavior (e.g., Wertenbroch, 1998; Ariely & Wertenbroch, 2002; Thaler & Benartzi, 2004; Ashraf et al., 2006; DellaVigna & Malmendier, 2006; Augenblick, Niederle, & Sprenger, 2015; Kaur, Kremer,…”

“Past research on commitment devices has shown that some people who exhibit present bias are sophisticated about their selfcontrol problems and willing to incur costs to reduce the effects of their present bias (Wertenbroch 1998, Ariely and Wertenbroch 2002, Ashraf et al. 2006).”

“Furthermore, accelerated learning before a deadline has been found less successful than studying at an even pace (Ariely and Wertenbroch 2002; Perrin et al. 2011).”

“For example, Ariely and Wertenbroch (2002) find that students who can set their own deadlines perform worse than those forced to adhere to equally spaced deadlines.”

“Present-biased preferences have also been shown to explain consumers’ decisions regarding workouts (DellaVigna and Malmendier, 2006) or homework assignments (Ariely and Wertenbroch, 2002). DellaVigna (2009) provides an overview of the empirical evidence.”

“…self-control strategy is precommitment, in which people anticipate self-control failures and prospectively restrict their access to temptations (Rachlin and Green, 1972; Ainslie, 1974; Wertenbroch, 1998; Ariely and Wertenbroch, 2002; Kalenscher and Pennartz, 2008; Fujita, 2011; Elster, 2000).”

“Supporting the use of deadlines as a self-regulation strategy, Ariely and Wertenbroch (2002) demonstrated that selfimposed deadlines result in less task delay and higher performance as compared to having no intermediate deadlines.”

“Studies have also confirmed that academic self-control negatively predicts academic procrastination (Ariely and Wertenbroch, 2002).”

“Self-control is the ability to overcome urges and temptations for the sake of achieving future goals (Ariely & Wertenbroch, 2002; Trope & Fishbach, 2000).”