Title: WHEN TELLING THE WOLRD WHAT YOU WANT TO ACHIEVE CAN BE COUNTERPRODUCTIVE

Speaker: Xiuping Li, Assistant Professor of Marketing, National University of Singapore.

Time: 1:30-3:00pm, 20th June, 2012

Location: Room 217, New Building of GSM, Peking University

Abstract

Some research documents that publicizing a goal facilitates goal-consistent behaviors, while recent research shows that publicizing one’s goal may actually backfire and make people less likely to carry out goal-consistent behaviors. We propose a framework that accounts for the different consequences of goal publicity on goal pursuit by examining the role of self-expressive orientation. We argue that the contingency depends on individuals’ tendency to communicate self-concept through publicizing their goal; specifically, goal publicity decreases consistent behaviors when self-expressive orientation is strong. We tested this hypothesis in three experiments. Experiment 1 demonstrated that individuals who publicized their fitness goal spent less time on exercising if they considered keeping fit as a way to express who they were (e.g., a health-conscious person), while their counterparts who considered the functional benefits of keeping fit (e.g., health benefits) spent more time exercising after goal publicity. Experiment 2 showed that expressing self-concept through publicizing a goal entailed a sense of achieving the goal, which decreased subsequent goal pursuit. Experiment 3 further showed that social campaigns employing public commitment to facilitate goal-consistent behavior might backfire when the campaigns contain messages that draw attention to self-expression.

Welcome to attend!