title: Self-regulation of commitment to reduce cigarette consumption: mental contrasting of future with reality.
abstract: The model of fantasy realisation (Oettingen, 2000) specifies mental contrasting of a positive future with negative reality as a strategy that creates strong goal commitments. We propose that fantasies about a positive and negative future produce strong goal commitments when contrasted with the respective reality. The present study supports this hypothesis in the area of reducing cigarette consumption. Mental contrasting of a positive future with negative reality as well as mental contrasting of a negative future with positive reality led to taking immediate action when participants had high expectations of success. Results indicate that both fantasies about a positive future and a negative future can be used to commit to goals that benefit health and prevent disease.
authors.affiliation: Psychology Department, New York University, 6 Washington Place, 7th Floor, New York, NY 10003, USA. gabriele.oettingen@nyu.edu
authors.forename: Gabriele
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Oettingen
authors.forename: Doris
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mayer
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Thorpe
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005201:Fantasy; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D009042:Motivation; D020377:Self Efficacy; D016540:Smoking Cessation / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult