A new study published today unveils “nuance to what people really mean by ending on a high note”.

According to study published by the American Psychological Association, when people perceive that a door is closing — that they have a limited amount of time left to appreciate something, such as dining out or traveling — they tend toward the familiar rather than the new.

Researchers did eight experiments with a total of nearly 6,000 people to find out if people tend to prefer new, exciting experiences, like trying a new restaurant, or familiar ones, like going back to an old favorite, and if these preferences change based on how much time people think they have left to enjoy similar experiences.

The findings were reported in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

According to earlier studies, people often choose new and thrilling encounters that are more comfortable.

If they could choose between a new movie and one they’ve already seen, for example, they’d rather watch the new one.

The University of Chicago Booth School of Business’ Ed O’Brien, PhD, and Yuji Katsumata Winet, who co-authored the study, hypothesized that “perceived endings” would influence such decisions by encouraging consumers to go back to a meaningful old favorite.

In the first test, they asked 663 college and business school students and 500 online participants to read fictitious scenarios in which they were given the option of a new experience or a familiar, beloved one, such as reading a new book instead of rereading an old favorite or traveling to a new location instead of returning to a place they had previously loved.

The other half of the participants were encouraged to think of it as their final opportunity to travel or read a book for a while, while the other half were simply asked to choose a decision.

Participants in the “endings” groups were, on average, more likely than participants in the control groups to select routine activities across all scenarios.

The researchers then expanded beyond hypothetical issues to investigate people’s behavior in the lab and real-life circumstances in the following set of tests.

In one experiment, participants were told they would receive a restaurant gift card that had to be used within the following month.

Then, the other half of the participants were instructed to consider the limited number of dining opportunities they would have over the course of the following month as well as any particular factors that would prevent them from dining out.

Finally, participants were asked if they would prefer a gift card to an existing restaurant or a brand-new one.

Overall, a gift certificate to a well-known restaurant was selected by 67% of participants in the “endings” condition vs just 48% of participants in the control condition.

The researchers also looked into why perceived endings appeared to steer individuals toward things they were already familiar with.

They found that it wasn’t just because participants knew they would enjoy familiar experiences because they were safe bets, but also because they were more likely to find personal meaning in those things.

“Our findings unveil nuance to what people really mean by ending on a high note,” adds Winet. “Endings tend to prompt people to think about what’s personally meaningful to them. People like ending things on a meaningful note as it provides psychological closure, and in most cases old favorites tend to be more meaningful than exciting novelty.”

“The 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 they’ve never done but have always wanted to do — as they approach the end of life,” O’Brien adds. “Here we find that, at least in these more everyday ending contexts, people actually do the opposite. They want to end on a high note by ending on a familiar note.”

The findings, according to the researchers, may help people better plan their time so they may enjoy experiences to the fullest, such as visiting an attraction that they used to love on the last day of a trip rather than the beginning.

Retailers and marketers could benefit as well; for example, a café closing for renovations might increase the number of its most popular meals on the menu rather of introducing new products.

Additionally, the researchers speculate that these psychological framings might be helpful in tackling more significant societal issues.

“Nudging people toward repeat consumption by emphasizing endings and last chances,” according to Winet, “could subtly encourage sustainable consumption by curbing the waste that necessarily accumulates from perpetual novelty-seeking.”

Source: 10.1037/pspa0000321

Image Credit: Getty

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