One of the oldest mysteries of human behavior concerns when and why people are able to stick successfully to their most important goals. For example, what distinguishes the person who is able to give up smoking, or refrain from overeating, or stay in school from someone is unable to do so? This research project, which includes 3 experiments, focuses specifically on the role of non-conscious mental processes in successful self-control behavior. The first experiment examines when a goal (e.g., staying healthy and thin) might increase people's negative evaluations of activities or behaviors that would compromise the goal (e.g., fatty and unhealthy foods). The second experiment focuses on how a goal leads to such changes in people's evaluations of stimuli that might influence the pursuit of the goal. The third experiment examines whether it is possible to experimentally alter people's non-conscious mental processes in order to improve their ability to stick to the goals they identify as most important to them. A fundamental strength of this proposal is that it examines the role of non-conscious mental processes in successful self-control. By addressing key questions about how and when goals change people's evaluations of the stimuli around them, this work has the potential to significantly transform the field's understanding of effective self-control. In addition, findings from this research are likely to inform the development of new interventions and therapies for improving people's self-control.
How does the activation of a goal in memory translate into actual goal pursuit? Most research on goal pursuit has focused on how a goal can lead to changes in people’s explicit (i.e., intentionally reported) thoughts, plans, and emotions, which then lead to changes in behavior. However, research has begun to show that the activation of a goal in memory also triggers an assortment of implicit (i.e., unintentionally exhibited) effects on cognition, affect, and perception, which can in turn predict a person’s behavior toward the goal. This funded research is situated within this new implicit perspective on motivation, and examines in particular the implicit effects of a goal on people’s evaluations and attitudes. Specifically, the PI’s recent work shows that the activation of a goal in memory leads to significantly more positive implicit attitudes toward activities, events, and objects that could facilitate the pursuit of the goal. That is, as soon as a goal becomes activated in memory, people tend to become "evaluatively ready" to pursue it. Importantly, the PI has shown that this evaluative readiness effect predicts successful goal pursuit. The more people showed this effect, the more they were able to effectively pursue the goal. And yet, although the existing findings on this implicit phenomenon are promising, there still remain multiple theoretical and practical questions to be answered. The current proposal tested critical questions about the breadth, mechanisms, and behavioral influence of evaluative readiness. First, a considerable literature on motivation and self-regulation points to how moving toward objects and events that can facilitate a given goal is only half the story. Goal pursuit also depends on moving away from those objects and events that would undermine the focal goal. An important question therefore concerns the breadth of the effect, and whether the activation of a goal increases negative implicit attitudes toward obstacles to that goal. Findings from this research demonstrate that both effects occur. Second, the mechanisms that underlie the effect of goals on positive and/or negative implicit attitudes are unknown. The proposed work tested two leading possible explanations for how goals change people’s evaluative readiness. The empirical findings concerning this question have not been informative, but they are serving as groundwork for continued research on this question, and research is underway that addresses the two possible mechanisms. Third, the current proposed research systematically tested whether evaluative readiness causally improves goal success, and also identifies which of various versions of evaluative readiness are the most influential on successful goal pursuit. The empirical findings concerning this question have shown that evaluative readiness does cause changes in behavior, and sometimes does so in surprising ways. These findings have opened up new avenues for future research looking at how evaluative readiness causes behavior. Overall, this research proposal investigated key questions about how goals automatically change the way people evaluate the stimuli around them, and the findings from this funded work (and continuing related research) have the potential to significantly transform the field’s understanding of how the activation of a goal is translated into effective goal pursuit. In addition, this funded work yielded a significant amount of activity between and among undergraduates, graduates, and other faculty in a broadly collaborative effort. The undergraduates were involved both as fully informed participants in the experiments, and also as assistants in the lab in which the research occurred. The PI’s research lab also makes every effort to include a diverse array of undergraduate students in its activity, and in doing so aims to increase the participation in research of traditionally underrepresented groups in science. By identifying the variety of implicit mechanisms integral to effective self-regulation, research can begin to outline some ways in which people can better cope with self-control dilemmas in which they struggle to achieve their goals and objectives.
