The Dynamic Impact of Variety among Means on Motivation<xref ref-type="fn" rid="fn1" ptype="f661229" citart="citart1" /><xref ref-type="fn" rid="fn2" ptype="f661229" citart="citart1" />

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Consumers often have a variety of products that they may use to help them pursue their goals. These products constitute a set of means toward consumers' goal attainment. This article investigates (1) how the amount of variety (high vs. low) among a set of means affects motivation to pursue the associated goal and (2) how this relationship changes over the course of goal pursuit as progress is made toward goal attainment. Five studies demonstrate that when progress toward goal attainment is low, having more variety within a set of means to goal attainment increases motivation to pursue the goal. However, when progress toward goal attainment is high, having less variety within a set of means to goal attainment increases motivation to pursue the goal. These findings suggest perceived variety among means is an important determinant of motivation in goal pursuit. M any of consumers' choices are driven by their goals. For example, consumers go to the gym because they care about being fit and have family dinners because they wish to maintain strong interpersonal relationships. In addition to engaging in goal-congruent behaviors, consumers often use products to help them advance toward goal attainment. Most goals are associated with multiple products, or " means, " to goal attainment (Kruglanski et al. 2002). Together, these goal-related products can be thought of as constituting a set of means to goal attainment. To illustrate, consider Joe, who has an active fitness goal and who uses protein supplements to help him pursue this goal. The set of protein supplements that Joe uses as means to his fitness goal may include protein bars, protein powders, protein gels, and so forth, or any combination of these products. Sets of means to goal attainment may differ in terms of the Jordan Etkin ([email protected]) is a doctoral candidate at the for detailed comments on the article. The authors also thank the editor, the associate editor, and the three reviewers for their helpful feedback. variety of products contained within the set. For instance, a set of means may be less varied, consisting of a set of relatively similar products that only …