What Demands Are People Likely To Change: MR Or G

The Tri-Reference Point (TRP) theory, was established recently in the field of risk decision making. It takes into consideration three decision reference points, Goal (G), Minimum Requirement (MR), and Status Quo (SQ), which demarcate the outcome space into four functional regions: success, gain, loss, and failure. From the TRP theory's standpoint, the reason why MR is steadier than G is that from an evolutionary perspective, MR is concerned with species' survival, while G is related to reproductive success. Three experiments in this article examined the TRP theory's assumption that minimum requirement is steadier than goal.This thesis explores the effects of temporal distance and social distance on the stability of MR and G in a frame of construal level theory (CLT). In experiment 1, the MR of salary expectations was inflated in the distant future (year), and this inflation, as a result, changed the preference to salary programs in the near future (month). Experiment 2 surveyed MR and G of subjects' salary expectations at different temporal distances, and found that G increased more greatly than MR in the distant future. Experiment 3 introduced social distance as a new variable to study the stability of MR and G The result of experiment 3 demonstrated that the influence of temporal distance on MR and G accorded with the finding of experiment 2, and G decreased more greatly than MR at a higher construal level of social distance.To sum up, this thesis provides strong support for TRP's assumption that MR is steadier than G, which indicates that individuals would change their G-related demands more easily, compared to MR-related demands.