If at First You Don't Succeed, Try, Try Again: Effects of Persistence-Performance Contingencies, Ego Involvement, and Self-Esteem on Task Persistence

We explored some of the factors affecting individuals' decisions to persist with a course of action. A total of 60 graduate students of varying levels of chronic self-esteem worked at a task that contained several insoluble problems (unbeknownst to the participants). One half were informed beforehand that the nature of the task was such that persistence was a wise strategy for task completion (continuous condition), whereas the remaining half were informed that the nature of the task was such that persistence was a less prudent strategy (discrete condition). Also, one half were told that their task performance was very revealing of their personality and aptitude levels (high-involvement condition), whereas the remaining half were informed that their task performance was nonrevealing of themselves (low-involvement condition). Subjects exhibited greater persistence in the continuous than discrete condition; the continuous-discrete difference was much greater in the high-involvement than low-involvement condition; and the continuous-discrete information had a greater impact on the degree of persistence exhibited by high than low self-esteem subjects.