The automated will: nonconscious activation and pursuit of behavioral goals.
It is proposed that goals can be activated outside of awareness and then operate nonconsciously to guide self-regulation effectively (J. A. Bargh, 1990). Five experiments are reported in which the goal either to perform well or to cooperate was activated, without the awareness of participants, through a priming manipulation. In Experiment 1 priming of the goal to perform well caused participants to perform comparatively better on an intellectual task. In Experiment 2 priming of the goal to cooperate caused participants to replenish a commonly held resource more readily. Experiment 3 used a dissociation paradigm to rule out perceptual-construal alternative explanations. Experiments 4 and 5 demonstrated that action guided by nonconsciously activated goals manifests two classic content-free features of the pursuit of consciously held goals. Nonconsciously activated goals effectively guide action, enabling adaptation to ongoing situational demands.
Bargh
J A
JA
Department of Psychology, New York University, New York 10003, USA. john.bargh@nyu.edu
Gollwitzer
P M
PM
Lee-Chai
A
A
Barndollar
K
K
Trötschel
R
R
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D001332:Automatism; D001519:Behavior; D003463:Cues; D006040:Goals; D006801:Humans; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D011897:Random Allocation; D014473:Unconscious, Psychology