title: What you want (and do not want) affects what you see (and do not see): avoidance social goals and social events.
abstract: Two studies examined the influence of approach and avoidance social goals on memory for and evaluation of ambiguous social information. Study 1 found that individual differences in avoidance social goals were associated with greater memory of negative information, negatively biased interpretation of ambiguous social cues, and a more pessimistic evaluation of social actors. Study 2 experimentally manipulated social goals and found that individuals high in avoidance social motivation remembered more negative information and expressed more dislike for a stranger in the avoidance condition than in the approach condition. Results suggest that avoidance social goals are associated with emphasizing potential threats when making sense of the social environment.
authors.affiliation: Psychology Department, University of California-Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA. astrach@ucla.edu.
authors.forename: Amy
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Strachman
authors.forename: Shelly L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Gable
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D004924:Escape Reaction; D005260:Female; D006040:Goals; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D008149:Love; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D012919:Social Behavior; D012931:Social Environment; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires