Self‐affirmation and goal difficulty as moderators of the question‐behavior effect. (8th May 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: van Steen, Tommy; Joinson, Adam Nicholas
• Is Part Of: Journal of theoretical social psychology. Volume 2:Number 3(2018)
• Page Start: 76
• Page End: 84
• Publication Date: 2018-05-08
• Subjects: Social psychology -- Periodicals; 302.05
• DOI: 10.1002/jts5.21
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2475-0387

Abstract

Abstract: The question‐behavior effect suggests that asking people questions about their behavior influences future behavior. We investigated the moderating roles of self‐affirmation (Studies 1–3) and goal difficulty (Study 3). Participants completed questionnaires that included one/no‐prediction question about fruit and vegetable consumption. Some participants completed a self‐affirmation task as part of their questionnaire and all participants received a voucher for free fruit or vegetables. Use of the voucher was the outcome measure in all three studies. Prediction questions involving a difficult/easy to achieve goal resulted in a decrease/increase in voucher use, respectively, while adding a self‐affirmation task attenuated question‐behavior effects. We conclude that framing behaviors as "easy to achieve" increases the effectiveness of question‐behavior effect interventions and that self‐affirmation is effective in avoiding unwanted question‐behavior effects.