London, Nov 18 (IANS) Anticipation of challenge spurs people into working harder, says a new study.

Authors Anick Bosmans, Rik Pieters (both from Tilburg University in the Netherlands), and Hans Baumgartner (Pennsylvania State University) in a series of five studies observed that the more difficult a future task was expected to be, the harder consumers worked on a current task.

'For example, consumers consulted more information on a web page when they were asked to evaluate a new soft drink, when they expected that they would later on have to work on a difficult and demanding task,' write the authors.

Other participants were better able to come up with weight loss ideas when they believed they would have to work hard on a future job. The authors titled the phenomenon the 'get ready mindset'.

'People seem to prepare themselves mentally for upcoming tasks, but in doing so, the resources that are freed up for the future task carry over to current tasks,' the authors explain.

'We found consistent evidence that if the mind gets ready to perform later, it is set to go now,' the study authors said, according to a Tilbury University release.

The authors found that the 'get ready mindset' can be attenuated and even reversed when people are better at separating tasks, either because the situation helps then to do so or because they are habitually better at keeping tasks separate.

These findings were published online in the Journal of Consumer Research.