Data from Foundational Tests of the Need-Support Model: A Framework for Bridging Regulatory Focus Theory and Self-Determination Theory

This dataset includes data from the three studies reported in my paper on Foundational Tests of the Need-Support Model (Vaughn, 2017). I collected these data in 2014, 2015, and 2016 from over 2,100 Amazon Mechanical Turk workers in the United States and Canada. The dataset contains the measures described in the paper, as well as participants’ writing about the experiences they brought to mind in these studies. The data are stored on the Open Science Framework, and they could be used for exploratory research, meta-analyses, and research on replication. I also welcome collaborative research involving re-analyses of these data

Contents of Hopes and Duties: A Linguistic Analysis

People in a prevention focus tend to view their goals as duties and obligations, whereas people in a promotion focus tend to view their goals as hopes and aspirations. The current research suggests that people\u27s attention goes to somewhat different experiences when they describe their hopes vs. duties. Two studies randomly assigned participants (N = 953) to describe a hope vs. duty. Specifically, Study 1 asked participants to describe a personal experience of pursuing a hope vs. duty, and Study 2 asked participants to describe a current hope vs. duty they had. I analyzed these descriptions with Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) 2015. Consistent with earlier research on regulatory focus, participants wrote more about positive outcomes when describing hopes and social relationships when describing duties. The current research suggests that the effectiveness of common regulatory focus and regulatory fit manipulations could depend on participants\u27 freedom to choose the experiences they bring to mind when they describe their hopes and duties

Causal uncertainty and correction of judgments

We examined whether raising uncertainty about the causes of one\u27s judgments motivates correction. Specifically, we examined whether activating chronically accessible causal uncertainty (CU) beliefs with a conditional warning about possible bias enhances correction of weather judgments for tropical weather primes and of word frequency judgments for the availability bias. In two studies we showed that activating chronic beliefs led to careful correction of target judgments. Moreover, Study 2 revealed that chronically high-CU individuals who received a conditional warning felt more uncertain than did other participants, but that this uncertainty was suppressed somewhat by adjusting for the bias

The Effect of Subjective Experiences of Regulatory Fit on Trust

Two experiments provide support for the hypothesis that when people assess how much they trust another person, feelings of rightness from an initial, brief experience of regulatory fit (consistency between prevention or promotion regulatory focus of goals and strategic means) can suggest the other person is trustworthy, relative to feelings of wrongness from regulatory nonfit. This regulatory-fit effect on trust was stronger for acquaintances than for individuals participants knew well (Experiment 1) and was eliminated by drawing participants\u27 attention to how right the earlier, trust judgment-irrelevant event made them feel (Experiment 2). Implications are discussed for regulatory-fit theory, possible applications to applied settings and to other populations, and possible effects of other type

“This Story Is Right On”: The Impact of Regulatory Fit on Narrative Engagement and Persuasion

When people read a story, feelings of rightness from regulatory fit (consistency between regulatory state and strategic means) could suggest that the story is “right on” relative to feelings of wrongness from regulatory nonfit. Under these conditions, individuals who are experiencing feelings of rightness should engage more with the narrative and be more persuaded by its implicit messages. Results from two experiments supported these hypotheses. Participants in Experiment 1 were more mentally engaged (transported) by the story when they experienced regulatory fit. We replicated this effect in Experiment 2 and extended it to endorsement of story-consistent beliefs, an indicator of persuasion via narratives. Additionally, we found that drawing participants\u27 attention to an earlier event as a source of feelings of rightness eliminated the regulatory fit effects on transportation and persuasion, suggesting attribution of feelings of regulatory fit/nonfit to the plausibility of the narrative world

Social Marketing–Enhanced Home Energy Education Encourages Adoption of Energy-Saving Practices

We developed a program centered on a social marketing–enhanced home energy education visit to encourage homeowner adoption of specific energy conservation measures. We randomly assigned 170 homeowners to an experimental condition that included energy education before an energy audit or a control condition that included only an energy audit. Participants in the experimental condition adopted more no-cost and low-cost one-time energy conservation changes, such as adjusting refrigerator/freezer temperatures and lowering hot water temperature. However, they did not invest more in home energy renovations or other costly changes, such as replacing inefficient appliances. We discuss implications of this experiment for enhancing effectiveness of Extension-based energy education programs

Processing Fluency Affects Behavior More Strongly among People Higher in Trait Mindfulness

Processing fluency is the ease of processing information about a stimulus, which people can attribute to the experience of enjoyment. Despite consistent findings that processing fluency can affect self-reported judgments, little research has examined whether processing fluency or its interactions with personality traits can affect behavior. The current studies demonstrate that processing fluency is more likely to affect behavior among people higher in trait mindfulness. We manipulated processing fluency with rhyming versus nonrhyming maxims in Study 1 and with regulatory fit versus nonfit in Study 2. Participants higher in mindfulness showed a stronger positive effect for processing fluency on the dependent variable: the number of ideas they listed in a task they continued for as long as they enjoyed it

Regulatory Fit as Input for Stop Rules

Three experiments show that the motivational effects of regulatory fit (consistency between regulatory state and strategic means) are context-dependent. With no explicit decision rule about when to stop (Experiment 1) or an explicit enjoyment stop rule (Experiments 2 and 3), participants exerted more effort on tasks when experiencing regulatory fit than when experiencing regulatory nonfit. With an explicit sufficiency stop rule (Experiments 2 and 3), participants exerted less effort when experiencing regulatory fit than when experiencing regulatory nonfit. The interactive effect of regulatory fit and stop rules can be explained by misattribution of rightness feelings from regulatory fit: the effect was eliminated by drawing participants’ attention to an earlier event as a source of rightness feelings (Experiments 1 and 3)

MRV of non-GHG aspects of mitigation actions: developing an approach in the South African context

Climate change mitigation actions compete with other developmental actions for scarce resources, however climate change mitigation and sustainable development should not be seen as mutually exclusive or competing objectives. Mitigation actions in developing countries need to be prioritized based on least cost actions that maximize developmental benefits. MRV of mitigation co-benefits is important in this regard. This case study considers how to include the MRV of non-GHG impacts of mitigation into the domestic climate change Measurement and Evaluation (M&E) system currently being developed in South Africa. It considers the rationale behind MRV of non-GHG impacts, assesses options for measuring non-GHG impacts and proposes a potential framework for the development of such an approach specifically within the South Africa context. A framework is developed based on a literature review, an assessment of South Africa’s developmental goals and inputs obtained from key stakeholders. Stakeholders interviewed included representatives from national government departments, the private sector, civil society and the South African Designated National Authority. The conceptual approach and preliminary results were presented to the climate change M&E Technical Working Group (a collection of representatives from national government departments, government research institutions, academia, business and NGOs responsible for developing the M&E system in South Africa) for their inputs. The key drivers for measuring non-GHG impacts of mitigation were found to be the alignment of mitigation actions with national developmental objectives, meeting international requirements under the UNFCCC (or an alternative framework) and requirements or preferences of buyers of carbon credits and funders of mitigation actions. There are two distinct opportunities for MRV of non-GHG impacts in the context of these drivers: MRV in the planning and prioritizing of mitigation actions (projections and benchmarks); and MRV of the impacts that measure effectiveness in achieving objectives and inform future decision-making. Critically, significant resources are required to MRV non-GHG impacts of mitigation. Investment in MRV therefore needs to be done on a case-by-case (or category-by-category) basis depending on MRV requirements, the objective of the mitigation action and the extent to which the benefits of MRV will outweigh the costs

Regulatory Fit, Processing Fluency, and Narrative Persuasion

For millennia, people have used narratives to inform and persuade. However, little social psychological research addresses how and when narrative persuasion occurs, perhaps because narratives are complex stimuli that are difficult to vary without significantly changing the plot or characters. Existing research suggests that regulatory fit and/or processing fluency can be varied easily and in ways completely exterior to narrative content but that nonetheless affect how much narratives engage, transport, and persuade. We review research on narrative transportation and persuasion and then discuss regulatory fit and its relationship to processing fluency. Afterward, we discuss how regulatory fit and processing fluency may affect psychological engagement, transportation, and persuasion via narratives