Language
English (en)
Date of Award
5-13-2024
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Chair and Committee
Robyn LeBoeuf
Committee Members
na
Abstract
When facing tasks of differing difficulty, do people choose to tackle harder ones first or easier ones first? I show that the answer depends on how motivated they are to complete all of the tasks. I examine situations in which people must complete both a harder task and an easier one by the same deadline. When I incentivize people for completing both tasks by that deadline, they are more apt to complete the harder task before the easier task, compared to when they are not incentivized. This change results from two factors. First, the incentive leads people to care more about completing the tasks in an order that leads to success. Second, people believe that the difficult-first order is more likely to lead to success than is the easy-first order. Thus, when people are incentivized, they find successful task completion to be more important, and they switch to the difficult-first order, which they think is more likely to lead to success. I discuss implications of these findings both for individuals, who may be interested in more efficiently tackling difficult challenges, and also for managers and firms, who may be interested in influencing which tasks their employees and customers undertake first.
Recommended Citation
Healey, Patrick Matthew, "How Incentives Help Us Do Hard Things First" (2024). Olin Business School Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 48.
https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/olin_etds/48