If-then plans help regulate automatic peer influence on impulse buying

This study aims to take a dual-process perspective and argues that peer influence on increasing impulse buying may also operate automatically. If-then plans, which can automate action control, may, thus, help regulate peer influence. This research extends existing literature explicating the deliberate influence of social norms. Study 1 (N = 120) obtained causal evidence that forming an implementation intention (i.e. an if-then plan designed to automate action control) reduces peer impact on impulse buying in a laboratory experiment with young adults (students) selecting food items. Study 2 (N = 686) obtained correlational evidence for the role of norms, automaticity and implementation intentions in impulse buying using a large sample of high-school adolescents working on a vignette about clothes-shopping. If-then plans reduced impulse purchases in the laboratory (Study 1). Both reported deliberation on peer norms and the reported automaticity of shopping with peers predicted impulse buying but an implementation intention to be thriftily reduced these links (Study 2). This research highlights the role of automatic social processes in problematic consumer behaviour. Promising field studies and neuropsychological experiments are discussed. Young consumers can gain control over automatic peer influence by using if-then plans, thereby reducing impulse buying. This research helps understand new precursors of impulse buying in understudied European samples of young consumers

Test Boredom: Exploring a Neglected Emotion

The emotion of boredom has sparked considerable interest in research on teaching and learning, but boredom during tests and exams has not yet been examined. Based on the control-value theory of achievement emotions, we hypothesized that students may experience significant levels of boredom during testing (“test boredom”; H1), and that test boredom may be significantly related to theoretically hypothesized antecedents (control and value appraisals; H2) and outcomes (performance; H3). We further hypothesized that test boredom was more detrimental when students felt overchallenged during the test than when they felt underchallenged (‘abundance hypothesis’; H4). We tested these hypotheses in two studies (Study 1: N=208 8th graders; 54% female; Study 2: N=1,612 5th-10th graders, 47% female) using both trait and state measures of test boredom in mathematics and their proposed antecedents and outcomes. In support of H1, participants reported statistically significant levels of boredom during tests. Further, the relations of test boredom with its control and value antecedents (i.e., being over- or underchallenged, facets of value) were in line with our assumptions (H2). In support of H3, test boredom was significantly negatively related to academic achievement (grades). In line with H4, test scores were negatively related to boredom due to being overchallenged but unrelated, or even positively related, to boredom due to being underchallenged. Directions for future research on test boredom as well as practical implications are outlined

Downregulation of Anger by Mental Contrasting With Implementation Intentions (MCII)

As anger can lead to aggressive behavior aiming at intentionally hurting somebody, the prevention of its destructive consequences with effective emotion regulation strategies is crucial. Two studies tested the idea that mental contrasting with implementation intentions (MCII) interventions would be effective in down-regulating anger. In Study 1, participants who adopted the self-regulation strategy of MCII showed significantly less anger-related negative affect after the anger induction than participants in a control condition, with positive affect staying unaffected. Results from a second study with a control condition plus three self-regulation conditions – a reappraisal, a MCII, and a reappraisal + MCII condition – suggest that participants using MCII were effective in down-regulating anger, irrespective of whether it was supplemented by reappraisal or not. The present research contributes to emotion regulation research by introducing MCII as an effective strategy that can be tailored to satisfy individual emotion regulation demands, such as dealing with experienced anger

If-then planning

The self-regulation strategy of forming implementation intentions has now been studied for almost 30 years. We trace the development of this research and explicate the questions that have been addressed. We then present current research that investigates the consequences of implementation intentions for flexible goal striving, behaviour in situations for which one had not planned, and neuropsychological processes underlying the action control by implementation intentions. Next, we turn to novel applications focusing on how implementation intentions affect physical endurance and promote strategic information processing. Our review concludes with an outlook on future research on implementation intentions that covers emerging individual difference perspectives, innovative approaches to characterize underlying cognitive processes, and the prospects of integrating insights from related fields of research. As such, our review is an empathic call for addressing the many intriguing conceptual and empirical questions that still revolve around implementation intentions.publishe

If-then Planning in Sports: A Scoping Review

If-then planning (implementation intentions) describes a self-regulatory strategy that helps people to attain their goals across a variety of domains, such as achieving physical activity goals. Based on such beneficial effects, if-then plans are anecdotally discussed as a strategy to enhance sports-related performance as well. However, this discussion currently lacks an empirical basis. We therefore conducted a scoping review to identify experimental research on if-then planning effects on sports-related performance, potential moderators of these effects, the methodological approaches used, and the suitability of the available evidence for assessing the effectiveness of if-then planning in sports. Based on a search of four online databases, we identified a set of eleven studies that investigated if-then planning in experimental research with sports-related performance as outcome measure. Six of these studies focused on if-then planning in endurance tasks, the remaining studies investigated sports performance beyond endurance. The samples were often small and comprised university students, and conclusions regarding the effectiveness of if-then planning for improving sports-related performance were rather heterogeneous. Still, the majority of studies shed light on tentative mechanisms (e.g., perceptions of effort and pain, arousal) and moderators (e.g., athletes’ beliefs about their performance limits, feasibility of the behavior) of if-then planning in sports, guiding future research regarding the question of when and for whom if-then-planning might be a beneficial strategy. Based on these findings, we identify potentials and pitfalls when using if-then plans to enhance sports-related performance, discuss promising routes for future research, and derive practical implications for athletes and coaches

Overclaiming is not related to dark triad personality traits or stated and revealed risk preferences

The tendency to be overly confident in one's future and skills has long been studied. More recently, a correlate of this overconfidence, the tendency to overclaim knowledge, has been in the focus of research. Its antecedents and downstream behavioral consequences are still in question. In a sample of undergraduate students (N = 168), we tested whether a set of characteristics of the person (e.g., age, gender) and personality traits (i.e., the Dark Triad) is related to overclaiming knowledge. Moreover, we investigated whether overclaiming, in turn, predicts risk preferences. To this end, we asked individuals to rate their confidence in solving a set of different math problems and their familiarity with a set of math concepts. Some of these concepts were nonexistent, thereby allowing participants to overclaim knowledge. Participants then stated their general risk preference and performed three tasks revealing their general, financial, and social risk preferences. We demonstrated the hypothesized relationship between overclaiming and confidence. Furthermore, we observed that the assessed characteristics of the person were not correlated with overclaiming. If anything, height and digit ratio, a phenomenological correlate of hormonal differences during development, tended to be associated with overclaiming. Surprisingly, overclaiming was not at all related to risk preferences or personality traits. This set of results shows the need for relevant theoretical and methodological refinements.publishe

Control, anxiety and test performance: self‐reported and physiological indicators of anxiety as mediators

Education and Child Studie

The benefit of no choice: goal-directed plans enhance perceptual processing.

Choosing among different options is costly. Typically, response times are slower if participants can choose between several alternatives (free-choice) compared to when a stimulus determines a single correct response (forced-choice). This performance difference is commonly attributed to additional cognitive processing in free-choice tasks, which require time-consuming decisions between response options. Alternatively, the forced-choice advantage might result from facilitated perceptual processing, a prediction derived from the framework of implementation intentions. This hypothesis was tested in three experiments. Experiments 1 and 2 were PRP experiments and showed the expected underadditive interaction of the SOA manipulation and task type, pointing to a pre-central perceptual origin of the performance difference. Using the additive-factors logic, Experiment 3 further supported this view. We discuss the findings in the light of alternative accounts and offer potential mechanisms underlying performance differences in forced- and free-choice tasks