Motivating goal pursuit: The role of affect motivational intensity and activated goals

• Goals brought to mind with a positive state high (vs. low) in motivational intensity inspired more successful goal pursuit.
• People were unaware of how their behavior was shaped by the conjunction of affect and priming.
• The motivational component of affect directed the pursuit of primed goals.

Despite much interest in the operation of goals, there remains little understanding of how goal pursuit originates from the cognitive activation of a goal in memory. To address this knowledge gap, we examined how the motivational component of positive affect leads to the successful pursuit of primed goals. Experiment 1 found that people evidenced more successful pursuit of an action goal if the goal was primed as people experienced a positive state high in motivational intensity versus a positive state low in motivational intensity or a baseline state. Likewise, in Experiment 2, people showed more successful pursuit of an inaction goal if the goal was primed as people experienced a positive state high in motivational intensity. In sum, the motivational component of affect directed the pursuit of primed goals.