Do you have an opportunity or an obligation to score well? The influence of regulatory focus on academic test performance

•Three studies explored how students’ regulatory focus influenced their academic test performance.•Students with a prevention orientation performed better than those with a promotion orientation on two SAT-type lab exams.•Chronically prevention-oriented students also performed better on their actual college midterm and final exams.•Holding a prevention orientation seems to be adaptive for performance on low-stakes, loosely-timed exams.

Three studies explored academic test performance in the context of regulatory focus theory (Higgins, 1997), which posits that individuals pursue goals with a focus on growth and advancement (i.e., a promotion orientation) or on safety and security (i.e., a prevention orientation). In Studies 1 and 2, we brought participants into the lab, induced them to hold a promotion or prevention orientation, and asked them to complete math and verbal sections from an SAT exam. Students induced to hold a prevention orientation performed significantly better than students induced to hold a promotion orientation. In Study 3, we measured individual differences in students' regulatory orientations and then examined their performance on actual college course final exams. The more prevention-oriented (and less promotion-oriented) participants were, the higher their exam scores. Together, these findings suggest that a prevention orientation may be adaptive for test performance in certain analytic testing situations that have minimal time pressure.