Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • April 2022
  • Article
  • Journal of Consumer Research

Consumers Value Effort over Ease When Caring for Close Others

By: Ximena Garcia-Rada, Mary Steffel, Elanor F. Williams and Michael I. Norton
  • Format:Print
ShareBar

Abstract

Many products and services are designed to make caregiving easier, from premade meals for feeding families to robo-cribs that automatically rock babies to sleep. Yet, using these products may come with a cost: consumers may feel they have not exerted enough effort. Nine experiments show that consumers feel like better caregivers when they put more effort into caregiving tasks than when they use effort-reducing products to perform such tasks. The beneficial effect of effort on caregivers’ self-perceptions is driven by the symbolic meaning of caregiving (i.e., the task’s ability to show love) independent of the quality of care provided (i.e., the task’s ability to meet needs) and is most pronounced when expressing symbolic meaning is most important: when caregivers are providing emotional support rather than physical support, when they are caring for another person with whom they have a close relationship, and when there is a relationship norm that investing effort shows love. Finally, this work demonstrates that marketers can make effort-reducing products more appealing by acknowledging caregivers’ efforts rather than emphasizing how these products make caregiving less effortful. Together, these findings expand our current understanding of effort, caregiving, and consumer choice in close relationships.

Keywords

Effor; Caregiving; Close Relationships; Symbolic Meaning; Signaling; Relationships; Consumer Behavior; Perception

Citation

Garcia-Rada, Ximena, Mary Steffel, Elanor F. Williams, and Michael I. Norton. "Consumers Value Effort over Ease When Caring for Close Others." Journal of Consumer Research 48, no. 6 (April 2022): 970–990.
  • Find it at Harvard

About The Author

Michael I. Norton

Negotiation, Organizations & Markets
→More Publications

More from the Authors

    • July 2022
    • Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

    When Alterations Are Violations: Moral Outrage and Punishment in Response to (Even Minor) Alterations to Rituals

    By: Daniel H. Stein, Juliana Schroeder, Nicholas M. Hobson, Francesca Gino and Michael I. Norton
    • October 2021
    • Journal of Consumer Psychology

    Communicating Resource Scarcity and Interpersonal Connection

    By: Grant E. Donnelly, Anne V. Wilson, Ashley V. Whillans and Michael I. Norton
    • July 2021
    • Journal of Consumer Psychology

    Consumers—Especially Women—Avoid Buying from Firms with Higher Gender Pay Gaps

    By: Tobias Schlager, Bhavya Mohan, Katherine DeCelles and Michael I. Norton
More from the Authors
  • When Alterations Are Violations: Moral Outrage and Punishment in Response to (Even Minor) Alterations to Rituals By: Daniel H. Stein, Juliana Schroeder, Nicholas M. Hobson, Francesca Gino and Michael I. Norton
  • Communicating Resource Scarcity and Interpersonal Connection By: Grant E. Donnelly, Anne V. Wilson, Ashley V. Whillans and Michael I. Norton
  • Consumers—Especially Women—Avoid Buying from Firms with Higher Gender Pay Gaps By: Tobias Schlager, Bhavya Mohan, Katherine DeCelles and Michael I. Norton
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College