Wanted
Nostalgia Weakens the Desire for Money
Jannine Lasaleta, Constantine Sedikides & Kathleen Vohs
Journal of Consumer Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
Nostalgia has a strong presence in the marketing of goods and services. The current research asked whether its effectiveness is driven by its weakening of the desire for money. Six experiments demonstrated that feeling nostalgic decreased people's desire for money. Using multiple operationalizations of desire for money, nostalgia (vs. neutral) condition participants were willing to pay more for products (experiment 1), parted with more money but not more time (experiment 2), valued money less (experiments 3 and 4), were willing to put less effort into obtaining money (experiment 5), and drew smaller coins (experiment 6). Process evidence indicated that nostalgia's weakening of the desire for money was due to its capacity to foster social connectedness (experiments 5 and 6). Implications for price sensitivity, willingness to pay, consumer spending, and donation behavior are discussed. Nostalgia may be so commonly used in marketing because it encourages consumers to part with their money.
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Sanda Dolcos & Dolores Albarracin
European Journal of Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
People often talk to themselves using the first-person pronoun (I), but they also talk to themselves as if they are speaking to someone else, using the second-person pronoun (You). Yet, the relative behavioral control achieved by I and You self-talk remains unknown. The current research was designed to examine the potential behavioral advantage of using You in self-talk and the role of attitudes in this process. Three experiments compared the effects of I and You self-talk on problem solving performance and behavioral intentions. Experiment 1 revealed that giving self-advice about a hypothetical social situation using You yielded better anagram task performance than using I. Experiment 2 showed that using You self-talk in preparation for an anagram task enhanced anagram performance and intentions to work on anagrams more than I self-talk, and that these effects were mediated by participants' attitudes toward the task. Experiment 3 extended these findings to exercise intentions and highlighted the role of attitudes in this effect. Altogether, the current research showed that second-person self-talk strengthens both actual behavior performance and prospective behavioral intentions more than first-person self-talk.
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The role of expressive writing in math anxiety
Daeun Park, Gerardo Ramirez & Sian Beilock
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, June 2014, Pages 103-111
Abstract:
Math anxiety is a negative affective reaction to situations involving math. Previous work demonstrates that math anxiety can negatively impact math problem solving by creating performance-related worries that disrupt the working memory needed for the task at hand. By leveraging knowledge about the mechanism underlying the math anxiety-performance relationship, we tested the effectiveness of a short expressive writing intervention that has been shown to reduce intrusive thoughts and improve working memory availability. Students (N = 80) varying in math anxiety were asked to sit quietly (control group) prior to completing difficulty-matched math and word problems or to write about their thoughts and feelings regarding the exam they were about to take (expressive writing group). For the control group, high math-anxious individuals (HMAs) performed significantly worse on the math problems than low math-anxious students (LMAs). In the expressive writing group, however, this difference in math performance across HMAs and LMAs was significantly reduced. Among HMAs, the use of words related to anxiety, cause, and insight in their writing was positively related to math performance. Expressive writing boosts the performance of anxious students in math-testing situations.
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Self-Esteem Instability and the Desire for Fame
Amy Noser & Virgil Zeigler-Hill
Self and Identity, forthcoming
Abstract:
The desire to become famous was examined among individuals with stable and unstable forms of self-esteem. Participants were 181 female undergraduates who completed measures of self-esteem level and fame interest along with daily measures of state self-esteem (i.e., how an individual feels about oneself at the present moment) for seven consecutive days. Our results show that individuals who possess unstable high self-esteem reported a stronger desire to become famous than did those with stable high self-esteem. These findings suggest the intriguing possibility that individuals with unstable high self-esteem may want to become famous as a means for gaining external validation. Implications of these findings for understanding the connection between self-esteem and the desire for fame are discussed.
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Just think: The challenges of the disengaged mind
Timothy Wilson et al.
Science, 4 July 2014, Pages 75-77
Abstract:
In 11 studies, we found that participants typically did not enjoy spending 6 to 15 minutes in a room by themselves with nothing to do but think, that they enjoyed doing mundane external activities much more, and that many preferred to administer electric shocks to themselves instead of being left alone with their thoughts. Most people seem to prefer to be doing something rather than nothing, even if that something is negative.
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Brooke Macnamara, David Hambrick & Frederick Oswald
Psychological Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
More than 20 years ago, researchers proposed that individual differences in performance in such domains as music, sports, and games largely reflect individual differences in amount of deliberate practice, which was defined as engagement in structured activities created specifically to improve performance in a domain. This view is a frequent topic of popular-science writing - but is it supported by empirical evidence? To answer this question, we conducted a meta-analysis covering all major domains in which deliberate practice has been investigated. We found that deliberate practice explained 26% of the variance in performance for games, 21% for music, 18% for sports, 4% for education, and less than 1% for professions. We conclude that deliberate practice is important, but not as important as has been argued.
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Doing It the Hard Way: How Low Control Drives Preferences for High Effort Products and Services
Keisha Cutright & Adriana Samper
Journal of Consumer Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
Consumers often face situations in which their feelings of personal control are threatened. In such contexts, what role should products play in helping consumers pursue their goals (e.g., losing weight, maintaining a clean home, etc.)? Across five studies, we challenge the traditional view that low control is detrimental to effort and demonstrate that consumers prefer products that require them to engage in hard work when feelings of control are low. Such high-effort products reassure individuals that desired outcomes are possible while also enabling them to feel as if they have driven their own outcomes. We also identify important boundary conditions, finding that both the nature of individuals' thoughts about control and their perceived rate of progress towards goals are important factors in the desire to exert increased effort.
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Will you thrive under pressure or burn out? Linking anxiety motivation and emotional exhaustion
Juliane Strack, Paulo Lopes & Francisco Esteves
Cognition and Emotion, forthcoming
Abstract:
Can individual differences in the tendency to use anxiety as a source of motivation explain emotional exhaustion? We examined the effects of using anxiety as a source of energy or as a source of information (viewed here as two forms of anxiety motivation) on emotional exhaustion. In Study 1, the use of anxiety as a source of energy predicted decreased emotional exhaustion one year later. Moreover, both forms of anxiety motivation buffered people from the detrimental effects of trait anxiety on later emotional exhaustion. In Study 2, an experiment, participants who were instructed to use anxiety as a source of energy reported lower emotional exhaustion following a stressful task, compared to those instructed to focus on the task or to simply do their best. These findings suggest that using anxiety as a source of motivation may protect people against emotional exhaustion.
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Angela Leung et al.
Emotion, forthcoming
Abstract:
Based on the instrumental account of emotion regulation (Tamir, 2005), the current research seeks to offer a novel perspective to the emotions-creativity debate by investigating the instrumental value of trait-consistent emotions in creativity. We hypothesize that emotions such as worry (vs. happy) are trait-consistent experiences for individuals higher on trait neuroticism and experiencing these emotions can facilitate performance in a creativity task. In 3 studies, we found support for our hypothesis. First, individuals higher in neuroticism had a greater preference for recalling worrisome (vs. happy) events in anticipation of performing a creativity task (Study 1). Moreover, when induced to recall a worrisome (vs. happy) event, individuals higher in neuroticism came up with more creative design (Study 2) and more flexible uses of a brick (Study 3) when the task was a cognitively demanding one. Further, Study 3 offers preliminary support that increased intrinsic task enjoyment and motivation mediates the relationship between trait-consistent emotion regulation and creative performance. These findings offer a new perspective to the controversy concerning the emotions-creativity relationship and further demonstrate the role of instrumental emotion regulation in the domain of creative performance.
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Driven to Win: Rivalry, Motivation, and Performance
Gavin Kilduff
Social Psychological and Personality Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
This article investigates the phenomenon of interindividual rivalry and its consequences for motivation and task performance. Two studies of adults from the general population found that rivalry, as compared to nonrival competition, was associated with increased motivation and performance, controlling for tangible stakes, dislike, and other factors. Then, a large-scale archival study of long-distance running found that runners ran faster in races featuring their rivals, which were identified through empirical observation of demographics and prior race interactions. This research extends existing theory on competition and motivation and represents a first exploration into the consequences of rivalry between individuals.
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Predicting school success: Comparing Conscientiousness, Grit, and Emotion Regulation Ability
Zorana Ivcevic & Marc Brackett
Journal of Research in Personality, forthcoming
Abstract:
The present paper examines validity of three proposed self-regulation predictors of school outcomes - Conscientiousness, Grit and Emotion Regulation Ability (ERA). In a sample of private high school students (N = 213) we measured these constructs along with indices of school success obtained from records (rule violating behavior, academic recognitions, honors, and GPA) and self-reported satisfaction with school. Regression analyses showed that after controlling for other Big Five traits, all school outcomes were significantly predicted by Conscientiousness and ERA, but not Grit. The discussion focuses on the importance of broad personality traits (Conscientiousness; measures of typical performance) and self-regulation abilities (ERA; measures of maximal performance) in predicting school success.
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Does Being Bored Make Us More Creative?
Sandi Mann & Rebekah Cadman
Creativity Research Journal, Spring 2014, Pages 165-173
Abstract:
Boredom has traditionally been associated with a range of negative outcomes, both within the workplace and outside it. More recently, however, it has been suggested that boredom can have positive outcomes, one of which might be increased creativity. This study addressed this proposition by examining the relationship between boredom and creative potential on a range of tasks. Two studies were carried out; the first involved 80 participants taking part in either a boring writing activity or not (control group) followed by a creative task. The second study involved a further 90 participants who varied in the type of boring activity they undertook (either a boring written activity, a boring reading activity, or a control) and the type of creative task that followed. Results suggested that boring activities resulted in increased creativity and that boring reading activities lead to more creativity in some circumstances (such as convergent tasks) than boring written activities. The role of daydreaming as a mediator between boredom and creativity is discussed and implications are outlined.