People prefer to experience familiar activities instead of novelty

Very often many of us opt to go towards familiar experiences instead of a novel activity because we find comfort in the known A new research published by the American Psychological Association has found that when people believe a door is closing that they have a limited amount of time left to enjoy something such as dining out or travelling they gravitate to the comfort of something familiar rather than the excitement of something newIn eight experiments with nearly 6000 total participants researchers explored whether people tend to prefer novel exciting experiences such as trying a new restaurant or familiar ones such as returning to an old favourite and whether those preferences shift with the number of time people believe that they have left to enjoy similar experiencesThe research was published in the Journal of Personality and Social PsychologyPrevious research has found that on average people tend to opt for novel and exciting experiences over familiar ones They would rather enjoy a new movie than rewatch something theyve already seen for example given equal access to both However study authors Ed OBrien PhD and Yuji Katsumata Winet of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business suspected that perceived endings might affect those choices by nudging people to return to a meaningful old favouriteIn the first experiment the researchers asked 500 online participants and 663 college and business school students to read hypothetical scenarios in which they were given the choice between a new experience or a familiar beloved one such as reading a new novel versus rereading an old favourite or visiting a new city versus revisiting a city they loved Half the participants were simply asked to make the choice while the other half were instructed to imagine that it was the last chance that they would have for a while to travel or read a novel Overall across all the situations participants in the endings groups were more likely to choose familiar activities compared with participants in the control groupsIn the next set of experiments the researchers moved beyond hypothetical questions to explore peoples behaviour in the lab and reallife settings In one for example participants were told they would be given a gift card to a restaurant and that the gift card needed to be used in the next month Then half the participants were told to reflect on how few opportunities they would have for going to restaurants in the next month and specific things that might prevent them from going to restaurantsFinally participants were asked whether they would prefer a gift card to a restaurant theyd visited before or one that was new to them Overall 67 per cent of the participants in the endings condition preferred a gift certificate to a familiar restaurant compared with just 48 per cent of those in the control conditionFinally the researchers explored why perceived endings seemed to push participants toward familiar things They found evidence that it was not simply because the familiar experiences were a safe bet that participants knew they would enjoy but also because they were more likely to find those familiar things personally meaningfulOur findings unveil nuance to what people really mean by ending on a high note said Winet Endings tend to prompt people to think about whats personally meaningful to them People like ending things on a meaningful note as it provides psychological closure and in most cases old favourites tend to be more meaningful than exciting noveltyThe research is especially interesting because on the surface it runs counter to the idea of the bucket list whereby people tend to pursue novelty things theyve never done but have always wanted to do as they approach the end of life OBrien said Here we find that at least in these more every day ending contexts people actually do the opposite They want to end on a high note by ending on a familiar noteThe researchers noted that the findings could help people better structure their time to maximise their enjoyment of experiences for example by visiting an old favourite attraction on the last rather than the first day of a vacation Retailers and marketers too could take advantage a cafe slated to close for renovations might put more of its favourite dishes on the menu rather than try new items for saleAnd perhaps according to the researchers such psychological frameworks could be useful for addressing larger societal problems Nudging people toward repeat consumption by emphasizing endings and last chances could subtly encourage sustainable consumption by curbing the waste that necessarily accumulates from perpetual noveltyseeking Winet saidAlso Read Liver cancer cases deaths estimated to rise by more than 55 per cent by 2040 StudyThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom 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