סמינר בשיווק

Speaker:

Rom Schrift, Wharton

Abstract:

In today’s tech-heavy environment, multitasking has become an integral part of our lives (e.g., Jumio 2013; Wang and Tchernev 2012). Consumers frequently go back and forth between tabs on their smartphones, messages, and websites. Moreover, nowadays, many workplace environments necessitate working on multiple projects under time pressure that may lead workers to shift back and forth between several tasks that they are engaged in (e.g., Leroy, 2009). Previous research has demonstrated the detrimental effects of multitasking on performance. In this paper we show that multitasking versus single-tasking is often a matter of perception. That is, the same activity may be framed and construed as either multitasking or single-tasking. Interestingly, across numerous incentive-compatible studies we find that the mere perception of multitasking improves performance and persistence. We propose that the mere perception of multitasking disrupts habituation, or the process by which a response is decremented after repeated exposure (e.g., Rankin et al 2009), and therefore improves performance. We discuss the theoretical and practical importance of these findings.