Presentation Type
Poster
Social Goal Contagion: Implicit Goal Activation
Abstract
In has been demonstrated that people are more likely to adopt another’s goal unconsciously, especially if that person belongs to their social group. Taking on another’s goal is dubbed “goal contagion”. The current study expands on recent findings of how implicit goal contagion is affected by groups.
In this study participants view a video where a goal is primed (cooperativeness or competitiveness), where they either share or don’t share group membership (school affiliation) with the individuals featured. Then they complete a word search task where they are inconspicuously outperformed by a confederate. Their affect is then measured.
The objective of the study is to replicate the findings of Loersch et al.(2008) and to further build on it by having a control condition and assessing the results one would find for females in the shared-group condition. By having only females in the study we will also evaluate whether the interaction only occurred in the previous study because the athletic based primes are more geared towards males. There will also be a word completion task that will further demonstrate that goal activation is occurring. Cooperation will also be tested by asking participants to stay a little longer to fill out surveys. Lastly exploratory analysis of the mass testing data that was filled out before the experiment will occur after data is gathered, in order to look at what roles trait competitiveness and personal well-being .
The anticipated conclusion is that goal contagion will be more likely between people who belong to the same group and this effect will occur when people are not explicitly focused on the group membership of others.
Categories
Social Sciences
Research Type
Thesis
Mentor Information
Dr. Tiina Ojanen
Social Goal Contagion: Implicit Goal Activation
In has been demonstrated that people are more likely to adopt another’s goal unconsciously, especially if that person belongs to their social group. Taking on another’s goal is dubbed “goal contagion”. The current study expands on recent findings of how implicit goal contagion is affected by groups.
In this study participants view a video where a goal is primed (cooperativeness or competitiveness), where they either share or don’t share group membership (school affiliation) with the individuals featured. Then they complete a word search task where they are inconspicuously outperformed by a confederate. Their affect is then measured.
The objective of the study is to replicate the findings of Loersch et al.(2008) and to further build on it by having a control condition and assessing the results one would find for females in the shared-group condition. By having only females in the study we will also evaluate whether the interaction only occurred in the previous study because the athletic based primes are more geared towards males. There will also be a word completion task that will further demonstrate that goal activation is occurring. Cooperation will also be tested by asking participants to stay a little longer to fill out surveys. Lastly exploratory analysis of the mass testing data that was filled out before the experiment will occur after data is gathered, in order to look at what roles trait competitiveness and personal well-being .
The anticipated conclusion is that goal contagion will be more likely between people who belong to the same group and this effect will occur when people are not explicitly focused on the group membership of others.
