What is it about?
Two studies investigate how people can prevent unwanted 'social' influences on their behaviour. For example, that reading about supermodels makes them less able to answer trivial pursuit questions, or thinking about socialising prepares people to drink alcohol. Our research suggests that forming specific if-then plans, known as implementation intentions can help people to prevent these effects.
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Why is it important?
Many of the things that influence our behaviour do so without us being aware of them. For example, people may not realise (or believe) that thinking about supermodels can make them dumb - but evidence suggests that it can. Our research points to ways in which people can prevent such unwanted effects on their behaviour.
Perspectives
This research was a follow-up to some other studies that I did with Peter Gollwitzer, Paschal Sheeran, and Roman Trotschel, published in Psychological Science: Gollwitzer PM, Sheeran P, Trötschel R & Webb TL (2011) Self-regulation of priming effects on behavior. Psychological Science, 22(7), 901-907.
Dr Thomas L Webb
University of Sheffield
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Strategic Control Over the Unhelpful Effects of Primed Social Categories and Goals, Zeitschrift für Psychologie, January 2012, Hogrefe Publishing Group,
DOI: 10.1027/2151-2604/a000112.
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Contributors
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