We Succeeded Together, Now What: Relationship Power and Sequential Decisions in Couples’ Joint Goal Pursuits

Abstract

Research has demonstrated that after making high goal progress consumers feel liberated to engage in goal-inconsistent behaviors. But what happens after consumers make high progress in the context of joint goal pursuit? We examine how jointly-made progress towards a joint goal pursued by couples affects subsequent individually-made goal-relevant decisions. Across five experiments with both lab-created couples and married participants and financial data from a couples' money management mobile app, we show that after making high progress on a joint goal (vs. low or no progress), higher relationship power partners are more likely to disengage from the joint goal to pursue personal concerns (e.g., indulge themselves or pursue individual goals), whereas lower relationship power partners do not disengage from the joint goal and continue engaging in goal-consistent actions that maintain its pursuit. We elucidate the underlying mechanism, providing evidence that the joint goal progress boosts the relational self-concept of high (but not low) relationship power partners and this drives the effects. Importantly, we demonstrate the effectiveness of two theory-grounded and easily implementable interventions which promote goal-consistent behaviors among high relationship power consumers in the context of joint savings goals.

The Effect of Asymmetric Intersexual Selection Power Perception on the Choice Deferral Behavior of Men and Women

“…It is worth noting that ISP is not equivalent to romantic relationship power. First, power in romantic relationships emphasizes the fact that one partner influences, controls, or changes the other and makes the majority of the decisions in a relationship ( Nikolova & Nenkov, 2022 ), including control over decisions regarding the brands of foods or drinks ( Brick et al, 2018 ). However, ISP emphasizes the asymmetric selection positions between individuals with the right to choose and individuals who are being chosen.…”

“…However, ISP emphasizes the asymmetric selection positions between individuals with the right to choose and individuals who are being chosen. Second, romantic relationship power focuses on power perception during the maintenance stage of the romantic relationship ( Brick et al, 2018 ; Ding et al, 2020 ; Nikolova & Nenkov, 2022 ), whereas ISP focuses on power perception during the formation stage. Individuals with high ISP have the ability to determine the start and the pace of development of the relationship.…”

How the construal of power impacts healthy food preference: the mediating role of self-discipline perception

“…Prior studies suggest that individual self-concept enact people to satisfy self-oriented, rather than joint-oriented, desires (e.g. personal indulgences), interests and goals (Nikolova and Nenkov, 2022). Consequently, powerholders, with the power construal of opportunity, might intensify reward seeking behaviors, and tend to indulge in excessive hedonic appetites, physical pleasure and other activities (Guinote, 2017).…”