<<My guess is that the main reason for that is that more devoted people tend to pledge higher amounts.>>
That could account for part of it, though, according to this article, “multiple studies have demonstrated that people perform better when goals are set higher and made more challenging.” I haven’t looked into this in more detail, but I’ve heard other social scientists who research behaviour change make similar claims (e.g. on this podcast).
My guess is that there’s a sweet spot of challenge/demandingness that is optimal, and that that sweet spot varies substantially by the individual.
(PS thanks for this post, I’ve had similar thoughts before and like the theoretical demonstration in expected value terms of the risk of giving up.)
<<My guess is that the main reason for that is that more devoted people tend to pledge higher amounts.>>
That could account for part of it, though, according to this article, “multiple studies have demonstrated that people perform better when goals are set higher and made more challenging.” I haven’t looked into this in more detail, but I’ve heard other social scientists who research behaviour change make similar claims (e.g. on this podcast).
My guess is that there’s a sweet spot of challenge/demandingness that is optimal, and that that sweet spot varies substantially by the individual.
(PS thanks for this post, I’ve had similar thoughts before and like the theoretical demonstration in expected value terms of the risk of giving up.)