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Asking “why” helps action control by goals but not plans

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Abstract

The present research investigated whether asking “why” concerning the pursuit of one goal can affect the subsequent pursuit of a previously chosen goal. Asking “why” should activate cognitive procedures involving deliberation over the pros and cons of a goal (why-mindset). This mode of thinking should spill over to subsequently pursued goals, with different consequences for goal striving guided by goal intentions and for goal striving guided by implementation intentions (if-then plans). As goal intentions guide behavior by effortful top-down action control processes motivated by the expected value of the desired outcomes, being in a why-mindset should induce defensive postdecisional deliberation and thereby promote goal pursuit. In contrast, implementation intentions guide behavior by automatic bottom-up action control processes triggered by the specified situational cues; in this case, being in a why-mindset should eliminate the effects implementation intentions have on goal pursuit. Performance on a handgrip self-control task (Study 1) as well as on a dual-task (simultaneous go/no-go task and tracking tasks; Study 2) supported these predictions: why-mindsets reinforced goal intention effects and impaired implementation intention effects on handgrip and dual-task performance. Implications for effective goal striving are discussed.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the members of the Social Psychology and Motivation Lab at the University of Konstanz and Claire Bacher for their helpful comments on earlier versions of this manuscript. This research was supported by the German Research Foundation [DFG, GO 387/14-2].

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  1. Lisa A. Sezer

    Present address: Department of Management, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Konstanz, 78457, Konstanz, Germany

    Frank Wieber, Lisa A. Sezer & Peter M. Gollwitzer

  2. Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY, USA

    Peter M. Gollwitzer

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  1. Frank Wieber
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Correspondence to Frank Wieber.

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Wieber, F., Sezer, L.A. & Gollwitzer, P.M. Asking “why” helps action control by goals but not plans. Motiv Emot 38, 65–78 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-013-9364-3

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