Field experiments on procrastination and willpower.

 

Field experiments are a research method that use some controlled elements of lab experiments in real-world settings. Here are some field experiments that have studied procrastination and willpower

Nicholas Burger , John Lynham and Gary Charness

Performed the field experiments and here are what they concluded:

They examine aspects of commitment and willpower in two experimental studies featuring behavioral interventions. As the duration of the tasks made it rather infeasible to use simple laboratory experiments, instead conducted field and online experiments.

Study 1, they investigate how people allocate their time over a task of significant duration (upto five weeks) and whether an externally-imposed commitment in the form of binding sub-goals would help them to complete the overall task.

Having observed possible willpower effects in Study 1, we chose to focus on willpower

In Study 2 Here they consider the effects of willpower depletion on performance.

Field experiments on procrastination and willpower have found that:

• Willpower depletion

Depleting willpower can lead to lower immediate performance, but higher overall performance.

• Intermediate goals

Intermediate goals are ineffective in reducing procrastination or increasing completion rates.

• Self-imposed deadlines

Students may self-impose deadlines, but deadlines do not increase completion rates.

• Present bias

Present bias is widespread, and present-biased students procrastinate on single tasks. However, they can self-control on repeated tasks.