Being Active and Impulsive: The Role of Goals for Action and Inaction in Self-Control

Although self-control often requires behavioral inaction (i.e., not eating a piece of cake), the process of inhibiting impulsive behavior is commonly characterized as cognitively active (i.e., actively exerting self-control). Two experiments examined whether motivation for action or inaction facilitates self-control behavior in the presence of tempting stimuli. Experiment 1 used a delay discounting task to assess the ability to delay gratification with respect to money. Experiment 2 used a Go/No-Go task to assess the ability to inhibit a dominant but incorrect motor response to the words condom and sex . The results demonstrate that goals for inaction promote self-control, whereas goals for action promote impulsive behavior. These findings are discussed in light of recent evidence suggesting that goals for action and inaction modulate physiological resources that promote behavioral execution

From Primed Concepts to Action: A Meta-Analysis of the Behavioral Effects of Incidentally Presented Words

A meta-analysis assessed the behavioral impact of and psychological processes associated with presenting words connected to an action or a goal representation. The average and distribution of 352 effect sizes (analyzed using fixed-effects and random-effects models) was obtained from 133 studies (84 reports) in which word primes were incidentally presented to participants, with a nonopposite control group, before measuring a behavioral dependent variable. Findings revealed a small behavioral priming effect (dFE = 0.332, dRE = 0.352), which was robust across methodological procedures and only minimally biased by the publication of positive (vs. negative) results. Theory testing analyses indicated that more valued behavior or goal concepts (e.g., associated with important outcomes or values) were associated with stronger priming effects than were less valued behaviors. Furthermore, there was some evidence of persistence of goal effects over time. These results support the notion that goal activation contributes over and above perception-behavior in explaining priming effects. In summary, theorizing about the role of value and satisfaction in goal activation pointed to stronger effects of a behavior or goal concept on overt action. There was no evidence that expectancy (ease of achieving the goal) moderated priming effects

Being active and impulsive: the role of goals for action and inaction in self-control

Although self-control often requires behavioral inaction (i.e., not eating a piece of cake), the process of inhibiting impulsive behavior is commonly characterized as extremely cognitively active (i.e., actively exerting self-control). Two experiments examined whether motivation for action or inaction facilitates self-control behavior in the presence of tempting stimuli. Experiment 1 used a delay discounting task to assess the ability to delay gratification with respect to money. Experiment 2 used a Go/No-Go task to assess the ability to inhibit a dominant but incorrect motor response to the words “condom” and “sex”. The results demonstrate that general goals for inaction promote self-control, whereas general goals for action promote impulsive behavior. These findings are discussed in light of recent evidence suggesting that goals for action and inaction modulate physiological resources that promote behavioral execution

The sequential exposure bias: A preference for approaching pro-attitudinal before counter-attitudinal information that can bias evaluative judgments

When searching for information, people often engage in behaviors that lead to biased rather than accurate judgments (e.g., confirmation bias). The present research identified the sequential exposure bias, defined as a tendency to approach attitude-supportive (congenial) information before attitude-unsupportive (uncongenial) information when searching for information. Participants were more likely to approach congenial before uncongenial information for a variety of stimuli, including novel consumer products (Studies 1-4) and important social topics such as civil rights (Studies 5-6). Further, the sequential exposure bias influenced downstream judgments via primacy effects – when participants initially liked (disliked) a stimulus, they tended to approach positive (negative) information first, and this approach order caused final attitudes to be relatively more positive (negative). Consequently, the sequential exposure bias helps individuals defend their attitudes against the persuasive influence of uncongenial information. Importantly, participants induced to have a strong desire to defend their attitudes displayed a stronger sequential exposure bias, indicating that the sequential exposure bias is sometimes deliberately used for attitude defense (Study 5). Although it was hypothesized that a strong accuracy motivation would reduce the sequential exposure bias, accuracy motivation could not be successfully manipulated to test this hypothesis (Study 6). Finally, individuals displayed consistent patterns of sequential exposure decisions across stimuli (Studies 1, 7, and 8), suggesting that individuals have consistent preferences for the order in which they approach positive versus negative information. Overall, the present research identified the sequential exposure bias as a novel information search behavior that has the potential to bias information search outcomes by making people relatively resistant to uncongenial information

Timescale halo: average-speed targets elicit more positive and less negative attributions than slow or fast targets.

Research on the timescale bias has found that observers perceive more capacity for mind in targets moving at an average speed, relative to slow or fast moving targets. The present research revisited the timescale bias as a type of halo effect, where normal-speed people elicit positive evaluations and abnormal-speed (slow and fast) people elicit negative evaluations. In two studies, participants viewed videos of people walking at a slow, average, or fast speed. We find evidence for a timescale halo effect: people walking at an average-speed were attributed more positive mental traits, but fewer negative mental traits, relative to slow or fast moving people. These effects held across both cognitive and emotional dimensions of mind and were mediated by overall positive/negative ratings of the person. These results suggest that, rather than eliciting greater perceptions of general mind, the timescale bias may reflect a generalized positivity toward average speed people relative to slow or fast moving people

LIKING FOR ACTION AND THE VERTICAL/HORIZONTAL DIMENSION OF CULTURE IN NINETEEN NATIONS: VALUING EQUALITY OVER HIERARCHY PROMOTES POSITIVITY TOWARDS ACTION

La cuestión de quién debe actuar y con qué frecuencia es crítica para las culturas y la regulación del comportamiento social. La dimensión vertical / horizontal de la cultura describe la valoración relativa de la jerarquía versus la igualdad. En una cultura horizontal que valora la igualdad, la responsabilidad de la acción se distribuye m ás ampliamente que en una jerarquía de valores verticales. La relación entre esta dimensión cultural y las actitudes generales hacia la acción y la inacción fue probada con una encuesta a gran escala de encuestados de 19 naciones. Un modelo multinivel indi ca que el gusto por la acción se asocia especialmente con la horizontalidad - la valoración de la igualdad. Aunque los valores pueden expresarse generalmente a través de diversas acciones compatibles, la horizontalidad (valoración de la igualdad) implica r espaldar la responsabilidad distribuida de la acción y sus resultados, promoviendo la acción. En cambio, la verticalidad incluye componentes compensatorios que desalientan la acción y promueve normas que limitan quién debe actuar de acuerdo al estatus

Perceived capacity for traits by target speed, Main Study.

<p><i>Means and standard deviations of the ratings given for each target assessing their capacity for various mental traits at different walking speeds.</i></p

Attribution of targets' capacity for positive traits and negative traits, Main Study.

<p>Ratings were made from 1 (Not at all) to 7 (Extremely).</p