"Mind full or mindful" – can mere cognitive busyness lead to compliance similar to an emotional seesaw?. (2nd October 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Kaczmarek, Magdalena C.; Steffens, Melanie C.
• Is Part Of: Social influence. Volume 14:Number 3/4(2019)
• Page Start: 117
• Page End: 132
• Publication Date: 2019-10-02
• Subjects: Mindlessness -- social influence -- cognitive load -- emotional seesaw phenomenon -- expectancy violation; Social influence -- Periodicals; 302.13
• DOI: 10.1080/15534510.2019.1682656
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1553-4510

Abstract

ABSTRACT: The emotional seesaw phenomenon (ESP) is a social-influence technique in which a person experiences a certain emotion, where the external stimulus that evoked the emotion suddenly disappears. Large effects on compliance and impaired cognitive functioning were reported after ESPs. The present research (total N = 163) tests a generalization of this phenomenon: whether mere cognitive busyness leads to similar effects by provoking an inner focus. Two experiments closely modeled after previous ESP experiments supported this reasoning: a simple expectancy violation (Experiment 1) and cognitive load (Experiment 2) caused a comparable pattern of results as the ESP. Experiment 3 demonstrated that also the ESP fostered an inner focus and consequently compliant behavior. We discuss mechanisms underlying social-influence techniques.