Should You Ditch Your Backup Plans?

In some situations, having a backup plan is common sense -- but research shows that in other cases it can keep you from achieving your primary goal. Learn more in this episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://health.howstuffworks.com/mental-health/human-nature/behavior/got-a-backup-plan-think-ditching-it.htm

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey
brain Stuff, Lauren vog Obam here. Backup plans, we've always
been told are a good idea, like your mom used
to tell you about your dream of becoming a Hollywood
actor or getting together with that crush who just clearly
wasn't interested. Remember, hon, it's nice to have something to

(00:23):
fall back on just in case the problem is and
maybe we've known this all along. Backup plans can be
kind of lame in the case of people. You're not
doing yourself or your alternative partner justice if you're thinking
about someone else the whole time, But the mere idea
of a backup plan can set you up to lose.

(00:45):
At least that's what g. Hay Shin said back when
house Stuff Works spoke with her in for the article
that this episode is based on. She's currently a visiting
lecturer at the Yale School of Management. She said, people
fear failure and that makes them want to make a
backup plan, but making a backup plan can actually make
it more likely that failure comes to you. Shin and

(01:07):
her colleague Katherine L. Milkman of the University of Pennsylvania's
Wharton School figured that out by doing what all good
academics do, experimenting. They started off by surveying people at
a United States train station about backup plans. Almost half
of the surveyed population had one for an identified goal.
Then took it further with a test that promised undergraduates

(01:28):
and energy bar for performing well and unscrambling words into sentences.
The researchers asked half of the students to think about
alternate ways backup plans to get snacks. Sure Enough, the
group who had a fallback plan for scoring an energy
bar if they failed to do their task didn't perform
as well in constructing the sentences. Shin and Milkman published

(01:51):
the results of their study in a twenty sixteen journal
article titled how backup plans can harm goal pursuit The
unexpected downside of being prepared for failure A. Milkman and
Shin wrote in Scientific American, many of the goals we
pursue in life require a great deal of effort, and
we can't be certain of achieving them. The insurance of

(02:11):
having a backup plan is thus very attractive. However, this
psychological insurance, just like other insurances, may come with the
price Shin It drew from personal experience to come up
with the idea for the study. After earning her PhD
from Wharton, she wandered into the job market looking for
something in academia. Jobs like the ones she was after

(02:35):
aren't that easy to come by? Oh what if she
looked and looked and looked and didn't find anything. What then,
Shin said, it's really interesting and fascinating how we get
those ideas. I was thinking, somehow, if I do make
a backup plan, somehow I think it will make it
more likely that I might fail. It will kind of
hurt my chances of success. So what's the harm in

(02:58):
a backup plan? It's simple. Really, people are less motivated
and put in less effort to succeed when they know
the consequences of failure aren't terribly severe. If you have
that insurance, as Milkman called it, say a totally decent
job acting in a local theater in case Hollywood falls through.
You may not work as hard at Hollywood because even

(03:20):
if you fail, you'll be okay. The authors wrote, you
are effectively constructing an emotional safety net, which may dampen
your goal desire. Shin and Milkman found that even thinking
about a backup plan can impede your progress in achieving
that primary goal. Shin said, it's not about having a
backup option that we can take into the real world.

(03:42):
What we're studying here is more about planning what you're
doing in your mind. A commitment, or the desire and
effort needed to reach a goal, played a huge part
in the study. The authors wrote, primary goal commitment is
increased by having an additional means of attaining the primary goal,
but primary goal desire is decreased by making a backup plan.

(04:05):
Making plans isn't all bad, Shin said, In fact, it
can be quite good. Many studies point out that there's
a direct and positive correlation between making plans and success
in achieving those goals. The difference those studies examined plans
that are designed to help you reach your initial goal,
perhaps multiple plans that are all designed to help you

(04:26):
reach that goal, not backup plans in case you fail,
and Shin was quick to point out that the study
only looks at goals that can be achieved through effort.
Those are the ones affected negatively by thinking about or
having a plan b for other goals, like ones that
involved luck, say, a desire to get rich playing the

(04:47):
stock market, or to retire to Aruba once you hit
on one of those scratch off lottery tickets. For those,
it's probably best to have a backup plan. Yeah. Today's
episode is based on the article gotta backup plan, think
about ditching it on how stuff works dot com, written
by John Donovan. Brain Stuff is production of by Heart

(05:09):
Radio and partnership with how stuff works dot com, and
it is produced by Tyler Clain. Or more podcasts from
my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.