The Interplay Between Goal Intentions and Implementation Intentions

1. The Interplay Between Goal Intentions and Implementation Intentions Paschal Sheeran Thomas L. Webb University of Sheffield Peter M. Gollwitzer Universität Konstanz and New York University Two studies tested whether action control by implementation intentions is sensitive to the activation and strength of participants’ underlying goal intentions. In Study 1, participants formed implementation intentions (or did not) and their goal intentions were measured. Findings revealed a significant interaction between implementation intentions and the strength of respective goal intentions. Implementation intentions benefited the rate of goal attainment when participants had strong goal intentions but not when goal intentions were weak. Study 2 activated either a task-relevant or a neutral goal outside of participants’ conscious awareness and found that implementation intentions affected performance only when the relevant goal had been activated. These findings indicate that the rate of goal attainment engendered by implementation intentions takes account of the state (strength, activation) of people’s superordinate goal intentions.

2. Example implementation intention: “If I brush my teeth, then I will floss” Purpose: To determine whether the automatic behavior initiated by making implementation intentions is moderated by the presence of a superordinate goal intention or not. Study 1:Studying outside of class Study 2:Solving puzzles quickly Hypothesis: Implementation intentions would show the strongest behavioral effects only if there was a strong underlying goal. • Primed unconsciously with a task-relevant goal OR not primed at all • Formed a relevant implementation intention OR formed an irrelevant implementation intention • DVs: Number correct responses, average time spent on each puzzle Conclusions: The effectiveness of implementation intentions is moderated by people’s underlying goals. Forming implementation intentions does not just lead to rigid, mechanical behavior elicited by situational cues. Also, people don’t have to be consciously aware of their underlying goal and they don’t have to be aware of the activation of this goal for implementation intentions to be effective.

3. By Bargh et al. The Automated Will: Nonconscious Activation and Pursuit of Behavioral Goals It is proposed that goals can be activated outside of awareness and then operate nonconsciously to guide self-regulation effectively (J. A. Bargh, 1990). Five experiments are reported in which the goal either to perform well or to cooperate was activated, without the awareness of participants, through a priming manipulation. In Experiment 1 priming of the goal to perform well caused participants to perform comparatively better on an intellectual task. In Experiment 2 priming of the goal to cooperate caused participants to replenish a commonly held resource more readily. Experiment 3 used a dissociation paradigm to rule out perceptual-construal alternative explanations. Experiments 4 and 5 demonstrated that action guided by nonconsciously activated goals manifests two classic content-free features of the pursuit of consciously held goals. Nonconsciously activated goals effectively guide action, enabling adaptation to ongoing situational demands. JPSP 2001 Vol. 81, No.6. 1014-1027

4. Study 2 • Study 2 Scramble sentence test (priming task)  fishing game (resource dilemma task) conscious goal to cooperate vs. control group Result: nonconscious goal condition showed the same increase in cooperation due to goal priming • Study 1 High performance goal primed participants found more words in the word search puzzle than the control • Study 3 Word search puzzle (priming task)  draw a family tree (delay condition)  word search game or impression formation task Result: increased performance in the high performance goal priming condition • Study 4, 5 • high performance goal priming condition continues to work after the stop signal and also continues to work on interruptedtask • Study 3

5. Leading Us Not Unto Temptation: Momentary Allurements Elicit Overriding Goal Activation Fishbach, Friedman & Kruglanski, JPSP 2003 The present research explored the nature of automatic associations formed between short-term motives (temptations) and the overriding goals with which they interfere. Five experimental studies, encompassing several self-regulatory domains, found that temptations tend to activate such higher priority goals, whereas the latter tend to inhibit the temptations. These activation patterns occurred outside of participants’ conscious awareness and did not appear to tax their mental resources. Moreover, they varied as a function of subjective goal importance and were more pronounced for successful versus unsuccessful self-regulators in a given domain. Finally, priming by temptation stimuli was found not only to influence the activation of overriding goals but also to affect goal-congruent behavioral choices.

6. Fishbach, Friedman & Kruglanski, JPSP 2003 Study 1 – Self-Reported Temptations Activate Self-Reported Goals Study 3 – Activation in Subjects with High vs. Low Self-Regulatory Success • Study 4 – “Food” Words Activate “Weight-Watching” Words; Moderated by Goal Importance and Self-Regulatory Success • Replicates the Pattern from Study 3 • Only for P’s Who Value the Goal • Study 2 – “Sin” Words Activate “Religion” Words Under Cognitive Load • Replicates the Pattern from Study 1 • Study 5 – Both “Diet” and “Fattening Food” Primes Led to Healthier Behavioral Choices (Apple vs. Chocolate) • Fattening prime also increased intentions to avoid unhealthy food; interestingly, Diet prime did not

7. By Aarts, Gollwitzer and Hassin Goal Contagion: Perceiving Is for Pursuing Six studies examined the goal contagion hypothesis, which claims that individuals may automatically adopt and pursue a goal that is implied by another person’s behavior. Participants were briefly exposed to behavioral information implying a specific goal and were then given the opportunity to act on the goal in a different way and context. Studies 1–3 established the goal contagion phenomenon by showing that the behavioral consequences of goal contagion possess features of goal directedness: (a) They are affected by goal strength, (b) they have the quality of goal appropriateness, and (c) they are characterized by persistence. Studies 4–6 show that people do not automatically adopt goals when the observed goal pursuit is conducted in an unacceptable manner, because the goal will then be perceived as unattractive. The results are discussed in the context of recent research on automatic goal pursuits. JPSP 2004 Vol. 87, No.1. 23-37

8. Studymethod • Mouse clicking task • Goal manipulation task :stories about the goal of seeking casual sex • Behavior assessment task: asked for the feedback of the first task by typing into the computer • DV: the total number of words of written feedback & the total time • Results • - Goal contagion effect depends on goal strength, appropriateness of target and also shows persistence • - Goal contagion effect is less likely to occur when goal pursuit is perceived less positive

11. Nonconscious Goal Pursuit: Isolated Incidents or Adaptive Self-Regulatory Tool?Chartrand et al. 2010 Models of nonconscious goal pursuit propose that goals can be activated and pursued without conscious awareness and intent. Until recently, these models have been relatively silent about whether or not nonconsciousgoal pursuit has consequences and what these consequences might be. We propose that nonconscious goal pursuit is part of a rich self-regulatory system in which goal progress (or a lack thereof) can influence self-enhancement and produce different consequences than conscious goal pursuit. We attribute the effect of nonconscious goal pursuit on self-enhancement to “mystery moods” (Chartrand & Bargh, 2002). Three experiments support these propositions. Self-enhancement was exacerbated following nonconscious goal failure compared to both conscious goal failure (Experiments 1-2) and no goal failure (Experiments 1-3). Evidence that negative “mystery moods” were the mechanism through which nonconscious goal failure affected self-enhancement was obtained by reducing mood mysteriousness, which attenuated self-enhancement (Experiments 2-3). Implications for research on nonconscious goal pursuit and self-enhancement are discussed.

12. Experiment 1: Self enhancement after nonconcious goal failure Experiment 3: Misattribution of moods • Conclusions: • Using different paradigms, the authors present converging evidence that nonconsious goal failure increases a need to self-enhance • This effect may be due to a lack of understanding of the source of one’s moods (mystery moods) • Support for the confluence model (self-enhance in separate domain because negative mood isn’t attributed to original nonconsious goal failure) Experiment 2 The role of “Mystery Moods”