Time-Varying Effects of Chronic Hedonic Goals on Impulsive Behavior

Marketers and academic scholars have long been interested in understanding what drives impulsive behavior. Most of the extant literature has focused on what causes a person to indulge without looking into factors that may cause a person to over-indulge. Understanding the reasons that underlie urges that strengthen over time requires a goal-theoretic view of impulsiveness. In this paper, we examine pleasure-seeking (hedonic) goals that may exist within individuals and continue to operate over time, influencing impulsive behavior. We demonstrate that impulsivity is characterized by generalized reward sensitivity as well as by an activation of chronic goals to seek pleasure in various domains (experiment 1). We then demonstrate that these chronic goals can lead to increased levels of impulsivity over time (experiment 2). Finally, we show through a moment-to-moment tracking of desires that such increases in intensity of behavior might be a result of strengthening urges and desires over time that override any ambivalence that may be experienced (experiment 3). Our findings suggest that contextual cues have powerful influences on impulsive behavior over time when acting in conjunction with chronic hedonic goals, and have public policy implications for behaviors such as binge drinking and unrestrained eating