It’s The Journey That Matters: The Effect of Feelings of Movement Toward a Goal on Reward Value

Prior research has established how proximity to goal attainment impacts the motivation to pursue that goal. What is relatively unknown is how the desirability of an extrinsic reward associated with goal fulfillment is affected by movement toward the goal. This research examines the effect of feelings of movement on attractiveness of a reward associated with goal attainment. Specifically, we show that perceived movement toward a goal results in higher valuation of an extrinsic reward. We build on the idea that there is a positive emotional response to moving towards a goal (Carver and Scheier 1998). Individuals are not generally aware of the source of these feelings, and the feelings can be misattributed to the reward. The evaluation of the reward is therefore affected by the presence and intensity of feelings arising from movement toward the goal. We demonstrated this effect by manipulating a sense of movement in various ways.