Goal projection in public places

Abstract

Three studies investigated the phenomenon of goal projection in everyday life considering three moderators: goal commitment, the perceived similarity of the target person, and goal attainment. Moviegoers' (Study 1) highly committed to see a particular movie projected this goal onto other movie patrons. Commuters (Study 2) highly committed to catch a certain train projected this goal onto other commuters, given that these commuters were perceived as similar. Shoppers (Study 3) projected buying a particular item when both their goal commitment and the perceived similarity of another shopper were high, and the goal was not yet attained. The results imply that goal projection is part of our everyday life and is fostered by high‐goal commitment, perceiving others as similar, and ongoing goal striving.

Connection Cues: Activating the Norms and Habits of Social Connectedness

“…A person may be cued from an assortment of contextual indicators in the surrounding environment, including objects, locations, situations, and other people. Spatial cues also allow for mobile media habits to be contagious; that is, goals are transmitted automatically after viewing another person perform a behavior in the research lab or in public places (C. Berger & Palomares, 2011;Hassin, Aarts, & Ferguson, 2005;Naju Ahn, Oettingen, & Gollwitzer, 2015). For instance, the sight of a crowd staring at their phones in public has become a common fixture in contemporary life (Burchell, 2015).…”

From regulation to projection: Reliance on regulatory mode in predictions about others

“…Although scarce, projection research addressing motivational aspects and consequences thereof has provided evidence for functional projection in that participants with activated goals (i.e., self-protection, mate-search) perceived functionally relevant emotional expressions (i.e., anger, sexual arousal) in goal-relevant social targets (Maner et al, 2005; for similar findings concerning judgments of sexual intent, see Lenton, Bryan, Hastie, & Fischer, 2007). Also, people would seem to project their specific goals (Ahn, Oettingen, & Gollwitzer, 2015;Kawada, Oettingen, Gollwitzer, & Bargh, 2004;Oettingen et al, 2014;Palomares, 2012). For example, when asked to name the goals of a target person in lab studies, people projected their chronic achievement goal (of performance vs. learning) and their implicit or explicit goal to compete onto others (Kawada et al, 2004).…”

“…For example, when asked to name the goals of a target person in lab studies, people projected their chronic achievement goal (of performance vs. learning) and their implicit or explicit goal to compete onto others (Kawada et al, 2004). In a similar vein, people in public places projected their goal to see a particular movie onto other moviegoers or their goal to catch a certain train onto other commuters (Ahn et al, 2015).…”

“…Finally, in the vast majority of social projection research people make judgments about neutral and hypothetical targets about whom very little is known, usually from vignettes or still photographs (e.g., Ames, 2004b;Kawada et al, 2004;Machnunksy et al, 2014)-an approach also taken here as it adds experimental control. However, this approach comes with a cost for realism and generalizability, and future research might consider real-world targets (Ahn et al, 2015;Davis, 2017). Such research might be informative regarding boundary conditions, as with accumulating behavioral evidence the need for the heuristic strategy of projection declines (Ames & Sheena, 2005;Krueger, 2007; Woltin & Yzerbyt, 2015).…”

“…Other work has focused on the projection of specific goals (i.e., what is being projected; Ahn et al, 2015;Kawada et al, 2004;Oettingen et al, 2014;Palomares, 2012). Only recent research has directly addressed motivational states, and more precisely people's reliance on their regulatory focus in social predictions (Woltin & Yzerbyt, 2015).…”