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Publications
  • October 2012
  • Article
  • Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

The Preference for Potential

By: Zakary L. Tormala, Jayson Jia and Michael I. Norton
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Abstract

When people seek to impress others, they often do so by highlighting individual achievements. Despite the intuitive appeal of this strategy, we demonstrate that people often prefer potential rather than achievement when evaluating others. Indeed, compared with references to achievement (e.g., "this person has won an award for his work"), references to potential (e.g., "this person could win an award for his work") appear to stimulate greater interest and processing, which can translate into more favorable reactions. This tendency creates a phenomenon whereby the potential to be good at something can be preferred over actually being good at that very same thing. We document this preference for potential in laboratory and field experiments, using targets ranging from athletes to comedians to graduate school applicants and measures ranging from salary allocations to online ad clicks to admission decisions.

Keywords

Preferences; Persuasion; Uncertainty; Risk and Uncertainty; Performance Expectations; Attitudes

Citation

Tormala, Zakary L., Jayson Jia, and Michael I. Norton. "The Preference for Potential." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 103, no. 4 (October 2012): 567–583.
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About The Author

Michael I. Norton

Negotiation, Organizations & Markets
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More from the Authors
  • Consumers Value Effort over Ease When Caring for Close Others By: Ximena Garcia-Rada, Mary Steffel, Elanor F. Williams and Michael I. Norton
  • Communicating Resource Scarcity and Interpersonal Connection By: Grant E. Donnelly, Anne V. Wilson, Ashley V. Whillans and Michael I. Norton
  • Consumers—Especially Women—Avoid Buying from Firms with Higher Gender Pay Gaps By: Tobias Schlager, Bhavya Mohan, Katherine DeCelles and Michael I. Norton
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