Endowed Progress Effect: Definition and the Car Wash Study
The endowed progress effect is the boost in effort from a head start on a goal. In a car wash study, 34% finished a pre-stamped card versus 19% of blank ones.
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In April 2004, researchers handed out 300 loyalty cards at a car wash. Both versions paid off with a free wash after eight purchases. One card had eight blank spaces. The other had ten spaces, two already stamped. Nunes and Drèze (2006, Journal of Consumer Research) tracked the cards and found that 34% of the pre-stamped group redeemed, against 19% of the blank group. That gap is the endowed progress effect: people work harder toward a goal when they are credited with progress they did not earn, even though the work required has not changed.
How is it different from the goal gradient?
The goal gradient effect is about speed near the finish. This one is about the starting line. The goal gradient covers the surge people feel near the end, while endowed progress changes where the counter begins. A head start makes “one of ten” feel like a habit already underway instead of a blank page.
What about the fresh start effect?
Also different. A fresh start is a date that invites a new attempt. Endowed progress works on any Tuesday.
How can you give yourself a head start?
Set the goal so that some progress already counts. If you are building a wake-up habit, count the day you set the alarm as day one, or count last week’s on-time mornings toward the tally. Choose credit you can defend, because in the study it came with a reason.
Some of this is bookkeeping, and it will not carry a habit alone. DontSnooze does not hand out credit. It only checks the morning itself, as covered in how the app works.