Kivetz, Urminsky, and Zheng partnered with a café to test the motivating effect of illusory progress in an experiment. Customers received a reward card that offered one free coffee after they’d bought ten. While half of the customers received a card with ten open slots, the other half got a card with twelve open slots. Yet the twelve-slot card had two preexisting “bonus” stamps, so, strictly speaking, these were identical reward programs. Every customer who got a card needed to make ten coffee purchases (and collect ten stamps) to get their free coffee. But the appeal of the free stamps was high. People who thought they’d gotten a head start came back to the café more often, filling in their reward card more quickly than the others. When the card came with two out of twelve slots already filled, it felt to customers like they were already 16 percent finished with the goal before they’d even started. Believing they were closer to the reward, they were more motivated to reach the finish line.