Autonomy and defensiveness: Experimentally increasing adaptive responses to health-risk information via priming and self-affirmation

Health information is often ineffective in motivating health-behaviour change. One way to improve information effectiveness might be to highlight autonomy, which is associated with less defensiveness and more adaptive psychological functioning. Three studies assessed whether experimentally elevating autonomy led to adaptive responses to risk information about alcohol consumption. In Study 1 (N?=?104), participants completed either an autonomy prime or a neutral prime task and read either risk information about the dangers of alcohol consumption or neutral information. Among high-risk participants in the autonomy prime condition, those who read risk information reported greater autonomous motivation towards moderate alcohol consumption than did those in the neutral information condition. Study 2 (N?=?157) compared two types of autonomy prime tasks with a neutral condition. For high-risk participants who read risk information, the autonomy prime tasks elicited greater autonomous motivation, more positive attitudes and greater intentions to drink in moderation than did the neutral prime task. Study 3 (N?=?130) found that for high-risk participants who read risk information, autonomy prime participants reported less subsequent alcohol consumption than did neutral prime participants. The results are discussed in terms of the benefits of autonomy for adaptive responses to risk information.     

The social image of drinking – mass media campaigns may inadvertently increase binge drinking

Mass media campaigns that promote responsible drinking are rarely tested for their usefulness in reducing heavy alcohol consumption. Existing campaigns that appeal to responsible drinking while simultaneously displaying young people in social drinking situations may even have paradoxical effects. To examine such possible effects, we drew on a real-world media campaign, which we systematically modified on the basis of recent prototype research. We pilot tested questionnaires (using n = 41 participants), developed two different sets of posters in the style of an existing campaign (n = 39) and investigated their effectiveness (n = 102). In the main study, young men were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: sociable or unsociable binge drinker prototype condition or a control group. Outcome variables were intention, behavioural willingness, attitude, subjective norm, self-efficacy, prototype evaluation and prototype similarity with respect to binge drinking. Binge drinking as a habit was included to control for the fact that habitual drinking in social situations is hard to overcome and poses a particular challenge to interventions. The manipulation check showed that the experimental variation (sociable vs. unsociable drinker prototype condition) was successful. Results of the main study showed that the sociable drinker prototype condition resulted in a higher willingness and – for those with less of a habit – a higher intention to binge drink the next weekend. The unsociable drinker prototype condition had no effects. The results imply that the social components of mass media campaigns might inadvertently exacerbate binge drinking in young men. We therefore advocate against campaigns including aspects of alcohol consumption that might be positively associated with drinker prototype perception. Finally, we provide suggestions for future research.     

Autonomy and defensiveness: experimentally increasing adaptive responses to health-risk information via priming and self-affirmation

Health information is often ineffective in motivating health-behaviour change. One way to improve information effectiveness might be to highlight autonomy, which is associated with less defensiveness and more adaptive psychological functioning. Three studies assessed whether experimentally elevating autonomy led to adaptive responses to risk information about alcohol consumption. In Study 1 (N?=?104), participants completed either an autonomy prime or a neutral prime task and read either risk information about the dangers of alcohol consumption or neutral information. Among high-risk participants in the autonomy prime condition, those who read risk information reported greater autonomous motivation towards moderate alcohol consumption than did those in the neutral information condition. Study 2 (N?=?157) compared two types of autonomy prime tasks with a neutral condition. For high-risk participants who read risk information, the autonomy prime tasks elicited greater autonomous motivation, more positive attitudes and greater intentions to drink in moderation than did the neutral prime task. Study 3 (N?=?130) found that for high-risk participants who read risk information, autonomy prime participants reported less subsequent alcohol consumption than did neutral prime participants. The results are discussed in terms of the benefits of autonomy for adaptive responses to risk information.     

When planning is not enough: Fighting unhealthy snacking habits by mental contrasting with implementation intentions (MCII)

In two experiments a self‐regulatory strategy combining mental contrasting with the formation of implementation intentions (MCII) was tested for its effectiveness in diminishing unhealthy snacking habits. Study 1 (N = 51) showed that participants in the MCII condition consumed fewer unhealthy snacks than participants in a control condition who thought about and listed healthy options for snacks. In Study 2 (N = 59) MCII was more effective than mental contrasting or formulating implementation intentions alone and mental contrasting was found to increase perceived clarity about critical cues for unhealthy snacking. Together, these findings suggest that MCII is an effective strategy for fighting habits and that one of the underlying processes making MCII superior to implementation intentions alone may be that mental contrasting produces clarity about the critical cues for the unwanted habitual behavior. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Influence of Positive and Negative Film Portrayals of Drinking on Older Adolescents' Alcohol Outcome Expectancies

College students (76 females. 32 males) were shown videotaped clips from popular films depicting either (a) desirable outcomes of drinking distilled spirits, (b) undesirable outcomes of drinking distilled spirits, or (c) no portrayals of distilled spirits. After presenting the film clips, we assessed their alcohol outcome expectancies and intentions to drink alcoholic beverages in the next week Participants in the positive film condition endorsed more positive expectancies than did participants in the control condition, and participants in the positive and negative film conditions endorsed more negative expectancies than did the participants in the control condition. Intentions to drink distilled spirits in the next week did not differ by film condition.     

Evidence that implementation intentions reduce drivers’ use of mobile phones while driving

Implementation intentions are IF-THEN plans that have the potential to reduce mobile phone use while driving and thus contribute towards the prevention of road traffic crashes. We tested whether an intervention, designed to promote the formation of implementation intentions, could reduce drivers’ use of mobile phones. A randomized controlled design was used. The participants (N = 136) were randomised to an implementation intention or a control condition. Self-report questionnaires were administered to all participants at both pre- and one-month post-intervention to measure the use of mobile phones while driving, goal intentions and the theoretically derived motivational pre-cursors of goal intentions (attitudes, subjective norm and perceived behavioural control). Immediately following the pre-intervention questionnaire, the participants in the implementation intention condition (n = 67) were given a volitional help sheet, which asked them to form implementation intentions by specifying target driving situations that tempted them the most to use a mobile phone and linking them with goal-directed responses that could be used to resist the temptation. The participants in the control condition (n = 69) were asked to specify target situations that tempted them the most to use a mobile phone while driving and to generally try to avoid using a mobile phone in those situations. One-month post-intervention, the participants in the implementation intention condition reported using a mobile phone less often while driving in their specified target driving situations than did the participants in the control condition. As expected, no differences were found between the conditions in the reported frequency of mobile phone use in unspecified driving situations, goal intentions or any motivational pre-cursor of goal intentions. The implementation intention intervention that was tested in this study is a potentially effective tool for reducing mobile phone use while driving in target driving situations, where behaviour-change is most needed.     

Effects of implementation intentions on the self-reported frequency of drivers' compliance with speed limits

This study tested the efficacy of implementation intentions in the context of drivers' speeding behavior. Participants (N = 300) completed self-report measures of goal intention and behavior, and they were randomly assigned to an experimental condition, which required them to specify an implementation intention, or a control condition. One month post-baseline, self-reported compliance with speed limits significantly increased for experimental participants but not for control participants. The effects of specifying an implementation intention on behavior increased with the strength of drivers' goal intentions. Finally, analysis of participants' implementation intentions revealed that specifying more behavioral strategies increased the frequency with which participants reported complying with the speed limit. Implications of the findings are discussed in relation to enhancing road safety interventions.     

Identifying the ‘if’ for ‘if-then’ plans: Combining implementation intentions with cue-monitoring targeting unhealthy snacking behaviour

Implementation intentions aimed at changing unwanted habits require the identification of personally relevant cues triggering the habitual response in order to be effective. To facilitate successful implementation intention formation, in the present study, planning was combined with cue-monitoring, a novel way to gain insight into triggers for unhealthy snacking. It was tested whether keeping a cue-monitoring diary and tailoring implementation intentions accordingly improves plan effectiveness. A 2 Monitoring (cue-monitoring, control)?×?2 Planning (implementation intention, goal intention) between subjects design was adopted. Participants (N = 161) monitored their unhealthy snacking behaviour for a week using either a cue-monitoring or a control diary. Participants then formulated a goal intention or an implementation intention tailored to their personal cue. Snacking frequency and caloric intake from unhealthy snacks were examined using a seven-day snack diary. The results did not indicate an interaction but yielded a main effect of Monitoring. Cue-monitoring either or not combined with implementation intentions reduced unhealthy snacking behaviour compared with control. Findings emphasise the effectiveness of cue-monitoring, suggesting that on the short term, cue-monitoring suffices to decrease unhealthy snacking, without additional benefit from planning. Future research should examine whether supplementing cue-monitoring with implementation intentions is required to establish long-term behaviour change maintenance.     

Furnishing hypnotic instructions with implementation intentions enhances hypnotic responsiveness

Forming implementation intentions has been consistently shown to be a powerful self-regulatory strategy. As the self-regulation of thoughts is important for the experience of involuntariness in the hypnotic context, investigating the effectiveness of implementation intentions on the suppression of thoughts was the focus of the present study. Participants were randomly assigned to one of four conditions (hypnotic instruction plus implementation intention, hypnotic instruction, implementation intention, and control condition). Results showed that participants who received information included in the "Carleton Skill Training Program" and in addition formed implementation intentions improved their hypnotic responsiveness as compared to all of the other three groups on measures of objective responding and involuntary responding. Thus, in line with the nonstate or cognitive social-psychological view of hypnosis stating that an individual's hypnotic suggestibility is not dispositional but modifiable, our results suggest that hypnotic responsiveness can be heightened by furnishing hypnotic instructions with ad hoc implementation intentions.     

Planning what not to eat: ironic effects of implementation intentions negating unhealthy habits

The present studies tested the effectiveness of implementation intentions with an "if [situation], then not [habitual response]" structure. Based on ironic process theory and the literature on the processing of negations, it was expected that these "negation implementation intentions" would, ironically, strengthen the habit (situation-response association) one aims to break. In line with the hypotheses, forming negation implementation intentions resulted in cognitive ironic rebound effects as well as behavioral ironic rebound effects compared to an intention only condition or a replacement implementation intention. Additionally, it was found that negation implementation intentions are most likely to result in ironic rebound effects when the habit to be negated is strong. Although implementation intentions are generally highly effective in facilitating behavior change even when this involves breaking unwanted habits, the present research suggests that they are ineffective when they have a negating structure.     

Blocked goals, persistent action: Implementation intentions engender tenacious goal striving

Research on goal attainment has demonstrated that people are more likely to reach their goals when they form implementation intentions. Three experiments tested whether implementation intentions lead to tenacious goal striving following blockage of an initial attempt to reach the goal. In all three experiments some participants were instructed to form an implementation intention and other participants were not. Subsequently, the initial goal-directed attempt of all participants was unexpectedly blocked. Experiment 1 found that implementation intentions resulted in more attempts to realize one’s goal. Experiment 2 showed that when participants formed an implementation intention their repeated attempt was acted out as intensely as their first, blocked attempt. Experiment 3 found that implementation intentions still allow people to seize an alternative, more onerous means to realize their intention. These results imply that implementation intention conserve self-regulatory strength. After goal blockage, the remaining strength can be used to continue goal-directed action.     

Implementation Intentions and Facilitation of Prospective Memory

Forming detailed implementation intentions for a future behavior can increase the probability that the behavior is actually completed. We investigated whether this intention effect could be used to improve prospective memory in older adults. As expected, participants who formed an implementation intention were more than twice as likely to self-initiate the intended behavior (writing down the day of the week on every sheet of paper received during the experiment) compared with participants who either were merely instructed to do so or actively rehearsed the instruction. Forming an implementation intention, however, did not improve performance on a task that required a response to salient cues. We conclude that detailed implementation intentions facilitate prospective memory on tasks that lack salient cues and require self-initiation.     

Overcoming Procrastination: The Effect of Implementation Intentions1

A hypothesized solution for procrastination is the formation of an implementation intention ( Van Eerde, 2000 ). University students (N = 152) were assessed using the Aitken Procrastination Inventory ( Aitken, 1982 ) and were asked to report to an experiment. Half of the participants formed implementation intentions to attend. An odds ratio indicated that participants who formed implementation intentions were nearly 8 times more likely to keep their appointments than those who did not. Low procrastinators reported more often for the experiment than did high procrastinators (Low = 49.4%; High = 30.1%), χ²(1, N = 152) = 5.84, p < .016. The interaction between implementation intentions and procrastination was not significant, χ²(1, N = 152) = 0.28, p < .60.     

Individual and collaborative implementation intentions and the promotion of breast self-examination

Implementation intentions, plans relating to when and where behaviours will be performed, have been effective in increasing health behaviour. Two studies are reported that test the impact of this strategy in promoting breast self-examination (BSE), a behaviour shown to aid the early detection of tumours. In study 1, 457 participants were randomly allocated to either implementation intention or control conditions. Implementation intentions significantly increased the likelihood of BSE at one month. The effect of the intervention was marginally significant at six months. Study 2 (N?=?101) tested the efficacy of a collaborative implementation intention intervention that required female participants to plan, with a partner, collaborative BSE performance. Results indicated that both implementation intentions and partner involvement were associated with BSE performance at one month, whilst the collaborative implementation intention intervention showed a 100% success rate. Collaborative implementation intentions may reduce forgetfulness. Interventions that encourage partner involvement in planning and enacting behaviour appear to enhance implementation intention utility.     

"Instant success": turning temptations into cues for goal-directed behavior

Contrary to lay intuition, counteractive control theory posits that tempting food cues can help individuals to act in accordance with their long-term dieting goal. However, studies have shown that temptations trigger goal-directed behavior only in successful but not in unsuccessful self-regulators. The aim of the present study was to test whether it is possible to create facilitated temptation-goal associations in unsuccessful dieters using implementation intentions (e.g., "If I see or smell chocolate then I will follow my goal to diet") and whether this indeed stimulates more successful self-regulation. It was found that implementation intentions linking a temptation to a dieting goal lead to self-perceived improved resistance to (Study 1) as well as reduced consumption (Study 2) of tempting snacks compared to a control condition. Moreover, Study 2 revealed that the reduced snack consumption was indeed related to facilitated temptation-goal associations in participants who had formed implementation intentions.     

Les effets de l’ingestion aiguë d’alcool sur le jugement d’expressions faciales émotionnelles spontanées et dynamiques

This study is interested in the link between acute alcohol consumption and the perception of dynamic and spontaneous emotional facial expressions (EFE). The noxious effects of alcohol on EFE recognition are now well demonstrated (Attwood et al., 2009a). Studies showed that alcohol drinking impairs the judgment of facial expressions, especially of negative ones (EFE of anger and disgust notably). However, such effects have been observed for the judgment of artificial material (static/posed/morphed/EFE). Yet, everyday EFE are far from the archetypes used in the lab. Therefore, the present study aims at completing previous observations, this time for the identification of dynamic and spontaneous EFE. Dynamic and spontaneous EFE of amusement, interest, irritation, anxiety, and neutral were judged by 63 normal male drinkers. Buck et al.’s (1972) paradigm was adopted since it is recommended for the study of nonverbal behavior in the process of communication ( [Buck, 1990] , [Wagner, 1990] , [Wagner et al., 1986] and [Zuckerman et al., 1976] ). The emotion to be identified is the one self-reported by the EFE sender. On the pretext of tasting drinks, participants were randomly assigned to one out of six experimental conditions. Two conditions are concerned with the nature of the drink (alcohol or non-alcohol drink). Three other conditions relate to the participant's experimentally manipulated belief regarding the nature of the drink (non-alcohol drink, slight alcohol drink, hard alcohol drink). Results confirm the emotion identification impairment due to alcohol usually noted, thus showing that the effects of alcohol are also observed for the perception of spontaneous and natural facial expressions. Indeed, the comparison of participants who drank alcoholic drinks versus those who did not drink alcohol shows that the formers identify less well emotions than the latter. Moreover, results show that beliefs do not play a role in this deficit since participants’ identification errors are not linked to the belief they hold regarding the nature of the drink (with/without alcohol). Finally, the confusion matrix analysis brings to light the existence of recurrent confusions amongst alcoholized participants, confusions that do not appear amongst sober participants. Thus, results show that, to the exception of EFE of amusement, participants who drank alcohol recurrently assess stimuli as displaying anxiety. To conclude, it comes out that acute alcohol drinking alters the capacity to accurately identify spontaneous emotions expressed by faces, which capacity is essential to the smooth unfolding of human interactions.     

When planning is needed: Implementation intentions and attainment of approach versus avoidance health goals

OBJECTIVE: This study tested whether forming implementation intentions is an effective strategy for attaining health goals focused on trying to avoid a negative state. DESIGN: Participants chose to either eat more healthy snacks (i.e., an approach goal) or eat fewer unhealthy snacks (i.e., an avoidance goal) over two weeks and were randomly assigned to create an implementation intention to do this or not. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The authors measured fat and calorie intake after one week and after two weeks. RESULTS: After two weeks, the participants who ate most unhealthily were those who pursued an avoidance goal and did not form an implementation intention. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that forming implementation intentions for avoidance goal pursuit can help people attain important health goals.     

Breaking habits with implementation intentions: a test of underlying processes

Implementation intentions specifying the replacement of a habitual response with an alternative response in a critical situation can overrule habits. In three experiments the cognitive effects of such counterhabitual implementation intentions were investigated. Results showed that implementation intentions eliminated the cognitive advantage of the habitual means in the "horse race" with the alternative response. That is, in the control condition, the habitual means was more accessible than the alternative means on encountering the critical situation, but this was no longer the case when implementation intentions were formulated. However, the cognitive advantage of the habitual means was not immediately replaced by an automatic activation of the alternative means. This suggests that formulating counterhabitual implementation intentions increases individuals' flexibility to choose which behavior to perform in the critical situation but that actual behavior will depart from their habits only to the extent that individuals have strong alternative goal intentions.     

‘Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder’: People who think they are drunk also think they are attractive

This research examines the role of alcohol consumption on self‐perceived attractiveness. Study 1, carried out in a barroom (N= 19), showed that the more alcoholic drinks customers consumed, the more attractive they thought they were. In Study 2, 94 non‐student participants in a bogus taste‐test study were given either an alcoholic beverage (target BAL [blood alcohol level]= 0.10 g/100 ml) or a non‐alcoholic beverage, with half of each group believing they had consumed alcohol and half believing they had not (balanced placebo design). After consuming beverages, they delivered a speech and rated how attractive, bright, original, and funny they thought they were. The speeches were videotaped and rated by 22 independent judges. Results showed that participants who thought they had consumed alcohol gave themselves more positive self‐evaluations. However, ratings from independent judges showed that this boost in self‐evaluation was unrelated to actual performance.