This article reviews the current state of the regulatory focus literature as it relates to consumer behavior, with a special emphasis on the goal pursuit processes that naturally align with the promotion and prevention systems. Because most research on such processes has taken place within the framework of regulatory fit theory, we highlight regulatory fit findings. We also suggest practical implications of these goal pursuit processes for marketing and branding. We then shift our attention to the standards that people use to evaluate their goal pursuit processes and examine how these standards and their use might differ with respect to regulatory focus. Finally, we share a new line of work on regulatory focus-specific goal pursuit processes and describe avenues for future research.
K E Y W O R D Sgoals and motivation, preference and choice, self-regulation and self-control
When people make decisions, they want the outcomes of their choice to be as positive as possible. But they also want the decision-making process itself to be conducted in the right way. Though this is often described as making decisions that are moral or ethical, it also includes making decisions that are appropriate-that are suitable and fitting. We focus on this latter, overlooked interpretation, and propose that making the right decision is about effectively establishing what is true and real. We discuss three factors that can lead people to experience their decision-making process as being right: (1) making a decision in the "right way"; (2) making a decision in a manner that "feels right" given the decision maker's current motivational orientation; and (3) making a decision based upon a "shared reality" with others. We review evidence that making the right decision in each of these ways intensifies the worth of a given chosen option.
This essay explains that to be motivated is to have preferences that direct how we think, feel, and behave. These motivational preferences come from three sources. For value, people want to feel successful in attaining desired outcomes even though outcomes aren’t everything. For truth, people also want to feel effective in how they pursue these outcomes—in doing what is real and doing what is right. For control, people want to make things happen. Using Plato’s allegory of the Charioteer, the authors discuss how value, truth, and control motives work together in an integrated manner during goal pursuit, although truth plays a special role in the partnership.
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