Article ID Journal Published Year Pages File Type
7324632 Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 2015 31 Pages PDF
Abstract
We examined the role of reward sensitivity and the motivation to balance 'have-to' and 'want-to' goals in vicarious goal satiation. In Experiment 1, participants who read about a target who completed an academic goal performed worse on an academic ('have-to') task and were more interested in engaging in inherently rewarding ('want-to') activities than participants who read about an incomplete goal. In Experiment 2, after reading about a target who completed a 'have-to' goal, participants who were more sensitive to rewards performed worse on a similar 'have-to' task. Furthermore, in Experiment 3, this effect was significant only when participants saw their task as more of a work (i.e., 'have-to') task. Together, these findings support the idea that motivation for rewards plays a role in vicarious goal satiation and that other people's goal pursuits can affect observers' perceived balance of 'have-to' and 'want-to' goals.
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Life Sciences Neuroscience Behavioral Neuroscience
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