Retirement Decisions: Expectation, Intention, and Action

The study examined the expectation-action chain of events in the context of the decision about whether to retire within the subsequent two years. One hundred and twenty-five staff employees at a large university participated. They evaluated their expectations about what would happen if they retired and stated their intention. Two years later they were contacted to see whether they had or had not retired. Expectations were used to predict intentions (78% correct predictions), and intentions were used to predict actions (76% correct predictions). The results were interpreted as evidence supporting the use of the expectation-intention-action chain to characterize retirement decision making. The possible causes of mispredictions were discussed.