title: Better sorry than safe: Making a Plan B reduces effectiveness of implementation intentions in healthy eating goals.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Implementation intentions (if-then plans) are helpful to health behaviour change. As these plans specify only one goal-directed behaviour for one specific situation, however, their effectiveness may be limited when a planned behaviour is impossible to execute in situ. The present research examines whether and how planning more than one goal-directed response for the same situation ('making a Plan B') affects successful self-regulation of eating behaviour.
  
  
  METHODS
  In Study 1, participants formulated either one or two plans, after which a lexical decision task was administered to assess association strength between the if-part and the then-part(s). In Study 2, the effect of making one, two or no plan(s) was assessed on actual eating behaviour, after which a Stroop task measured cognitive load as an additional explanatory mechanism.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Study 1 revealed that making a Plan B disrupts the creation of strong if-then associations during plan formation. Study 2 showed that making a Plan B yields increased unhealthy food intake compared to making one or no plan, and induces greater cognitive load during plan enactment.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Making a Plan B interferes with essential cognitive processes during different stages of planning, leading to an increased likelihood of self-regulatory failure.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Clinical and Health Psychology , Utrecht University , Utrecht , The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Charlotte D W
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Vinkers
authors.forename: Marieke A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Adriaanse
authors.forename: Floor M
authors.initials: FM
authors.lastname: Kroese
authors.forename: Denise T D
authors.initials: DT
authors.lastname: de Ridder
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D004435:Eating; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006040:Goals; D015438:Health Behavior; D006801:Humans; D033182:Intention; D012927:Social Control, Informal / Q000379:methods*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: eating behaviour; goal pursuit; implementation intentions; planning; self-regulation