糖心TV

How does experiencing success versus failure at an activity impact the motivation to achieve success when one engages in the activity again? We propose that the answer to this question depends on whether the activity is construed as work or play. A work construal promotes an outcome orientation, increasing the likelihood that the experienced success or failure is encoded as a signal of activity difficulty. By contrast, a play construal promotes a process orientation, rendering individuals more inclined to encode the experienced outcome as a signal of their competence at performing the activity. Thus, we hypothesize that failure is more motivating than success in work, and that success is more motivating than failure in play. Evidence from five experiments provides support for this theorizing. The findings advance our understanding of the motivational dynamics of success versus failure over time.