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Procrastination and the non‐monotonic effect of deadlines on task completion
Author(s) -
Knowles Stephen,
Servátka Maroš,
Sullivan Trudy,
Genç Murat
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
economic inquiry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.823
H-Index - 72
eISSN - 1465-7295
pISSN - 0095-2583
DOI - 10.1111/ecin.13042
Subject(s) - procrastination , task (project management) , monotonic function , test (biology) , computer science , donation , psychology , arithmetic , social psychology , economics , mathematics , management , mathematical analysis , paleontology , biology , economic growth
We conduct a field experiment to test the non‐monotonic effect of deadline length on task completion. Participants are invited to complete an online survey in which a donation goes to charity. They are given either 1 week, 1 month, or no deadline to respond. Responses are lowest for the 1‐month deadline and highest when no deadline is specified. No deadline and the 1‐week deadline feature a large number of early responses, while providing a 1‐month deadline appears to give people permission to procrastinate. If they are inattentive, they might forget to complete the task.