Time：April 27, 2022（Wed）10:00-11:30

Venue：246 Chengze Garden

Speaker：Prof. HE, Haoran（Beijing Normal University）

Topic：Information, Goal Setting and Performance: A Field Experiment

Abstract：We investigate how information impacts goal setting and performance by conducting a field experiment that varies with respect to whether students know or do not know their true relative ability when they set goals in a university physical education course based on relative performance rating. We document that most students set challenging goals, based on either their actual or estimated relative ability, proxied by their relative performance in an baseline test. However, only a small proportion of students predict their performance accurately; under- and over-estimation are equally common. Consequently, consistent with our theoretical prediction, receiving information about one’s relative ability significantly improves goals – increasing (decreasing) goals set by students who underestimate (overestimate) their initial relative test performance. We find that providing information significantly raises both relative and absolute final test performance of those who underestimate their relative ability. However, we do not find any effect on performance for students who overestimate themselves.