FlashReportGoal pursuit is grounded: The link between forward movement and achievement
Highlights
► Goals contain embodied and metaphorical information. ► Concept of achievement may become scaffolded onto simple forward movement. ► Visual cues of forward movement increased implicit positivity toward achievement. ► Visual cues of forward movement increased word puzzle performance.
Section snippets
Goals as grounded
Like most theory in social psychology (see Niedenthal et al., 2005), the contemporary perspective on goals assumes that cognitive information (i.e., representations) relevant to goals exists in a semantic structure independent of the brain's modal systems. For example, the representations underlying goals are usually described as existing in a semantic associative structure (e.g., Bargh, 1990, Fishbach and Ferguson, 2007, Kruglanski, 1996, Kruglanski et al., 2002), and a propositional knowledge
Achievement as grounded
As a test case, we examined the goal of achievement and its metaphorical link to movement. We predicted that achievement should be associated with the concept of forward movement. Organisms have to move themselves forward through space in order to attain what they need and want. These experiences that connect in a literal way bodily cues of forward motion with desired end-states (e.g., a loved one, food) might provide the basis for using forward movement as a metaphor to understand striving
Participants
One hundred and sixty-seven undergraduates participated in the experiment in exchange for course credit or pay.
Visual cues
We created two versions of the static linear perspective. In the first, classic version (SP1), the two lines converge at a point at the top of the screen. In the other version (SP2), multiple lines extend from the sides of the screen and converge at the center of the screen. Both of these cues create linear perspective and were expected to induce the goal to achieve (e.g., Andersen,
Participants
Eighty-six undergraduates participated in the experiment in exchange for course credit or pay.
Visual cues
We used only the classic linear perspective cue (SP1) along with the dynamic cue (DP). We included two controls: one control was the upside down linear perspective (Control-Flipped-SP) and the other cue was a series of ellipses (Control-Ellipse) that were all of the same size. Exposure to ellipses of the same size (i.e., without suggested movement) should be less likely to induce a sense of forward
General discussion
The results show that rudimentary visual cues of forward movement nonconsciously activated the goal to achieve. Participants who were primed with static or dynamic perspective cues showed significantly greater implicit positivity toward achievement, and better behavioral performance on word puzzles, compared with assorted control conditions. This is the first evidence that very simple, visual cues of forward movement increases people's motivation to achieve, even on tasks that are unrelated to
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