CHRISTMAS AND PROCRASTINATION - EXPLAINING LACK OF DILIGENCE AT A REAL-WORLD TASK DEADLINE

The present study examined 240 mall shoppers' procrastination scores (on arousal and avoidance measures), the closeness of the measurement to Christmas, and shoppers' rationales for why they were shopping at that particular time. Inventory scores were higher among shoppers on Christmas eve than 5 weeks earlier, and correlated positively with length of time to redeem mall gift certificates issued for participation. Further, people who scored high compared to low on the measures of procrastination cited different reasons for their shopping times, across measures. Procrastinators motivated by arousal from working against a deadline attributed their lack of diligence to job-related attributes (e.g. work, business commitments) that compelled them to begin shopping at the last possible opportunity. Procrastinators motivated to avoid situations involving threats to self-esteem attributed their postponed shopping to personal attributes (e.g. lack of energy, indecisiveness, perceived task aversiveness) reflecting their belief about their own inabilities. Results suggest that some procrastinators use situational attributes while others claim personal shortcomings for waiting to complete a ''real-world'' task at or before deadline.