Forget all the theories about how Australians can be encouraged/prodded/poked/legislated into taking financial advice and engaging with their super.
Three United States researchers have found women’s reasons for exercising have to do with their “superordinate-level goals” (this is an abstract concept to do with why people strive for their concrete or “focal” goal). Almost 400 mostly white women who worked full-time and were between 40 to 60 years old were studied for one year to find out what inspired them to exercise.
Stay with me as researchers Segar, Eccles and Richardson* detail the surprising results, and then you’ll be asked to do an exercise. Pun intended.
Behaviour can only be understood by identifying the goals to which it is attached. This research adds to the emerging literature on how superordinate goals influence behaviour.
Our data suggest that superordinate exercise goals related to health and healthy aging are associated with less exercise than those related to enhancing daily quality of life, despite being equally valued. Individuals have been socialised to perceive and value exercise primarily as a vehicle to promote health, prevent disease and lose weight.
While important, these types of benefits might not make exercise compelling enough to successfully compete against other daily responsibilities and priorities. Because immediate payoffs motivate behaviour better than distant goals, a more effective ‘hook’ for promoting higher participation levels might be to rebrand exercise as a primary way individuals can enhance the quality of their daily lives. These findings have important implications for how we as a culture, especially those in fitness-related businesses, health promotion, health care and public health, prescribe and market exercise on individual and population levels.
Now, pick up your Mont Blanc and replace each word in bold with its equivalent in financial services. You may end up with something like this.
Behaviour can only be understood by identifying the goals to which it is attached. This research adds to the emerging literature on how superordinate goals influence behaviour.
Our data suggest that superordinate financial goals related to longevity and comfortable aging are associated with less engagement than those related to enhancing daily quality of life, despite being equally valued.
Individuals have been socialised to perceive and value investing primarily as a vehicle to prevent geriatric poverty in 20 to 30 years’ time. While important, these types of benefits might not make financial engagement compelling enough to successfully compete against other daily responsibilities and priorities.Because immediate payoffs motivate behaviour better than distant goals, a more effective ‘hook’ for promoting higher participation levels might be to rebrand financial engagement in superannuation as a primary way individuals can enhance the quality of their daily lives. These findings have important implications for how we as a culture, especially those in financial advice groups, super funds, funds management, and self-managed super funds, prescribe and market financial engagement on individual and population levels.
Perhaps it’s time to resurrect (again) the Phillip Adams-Alex Stitt character, Norm, from the mid-1970s’ exercise campaign and cheer him on as he levers himself out of the easy chair to log in to Investing. Be in it.
* “Rebranding exercise: closing the gap between values and behavior”, authors Michelle Segar, Jacquelynne Eccles and Caroline Richardson, International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, August 2011.
http://www.ijbnpa.org/content/8/1/94.
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