Grounding Motivation for Behaviour Change

Abstract

Many of the key problems humans are facing today result from desires, habits, and social norms impeding behaviour change. Here, we apply a grounded cognition perspective to these phenomena, suggesting that simulating the consequences of one’s actions plays a key role in them. We first describe the grounded cognition theory of desire and motivated behaviour, and present evidence on how consumption and reward simulations underlie people’s representation of appetitive stimuli and guide motivated behaviour. Then, we discuss how the theory can be used to understand the effects of habits, social norms, and various self-regulation strategies. We suggest conceptualising behaviour change as overcoming the simulations of hedonic and social reward that favour existing habits and behaviours, and as updating situated representations of motivated behaviours in their social context. We discuss how this perspective can help us understand the challenges that people experience in initiating and repeating new behaviours, and in high-impact decision making in the face of the status quo. In order to move beyond the socially sanctioned, habitual behaviours that currently threaten human and planetary health, we must understand what motivates them, and how this motivation can be harnessed for the greater good.

Representational shifts: Increasing motivation for bottled water through simulation-enhancing advertisements

“…While the advertisements did not have a direct effect on motivation for bottled water, they induced a shift in participant's representations of a ctitious bottled water, which in turn affected their motivation. These results are in line with predictions by the grounded cognition theory of desire and motivated behaviour, which describes motivation as guided by simulations of previously encountered experiences (14). Merely by emphasising properties inherent in bottled water (such as its refreshing nature and its health bene ts), participant's representations of the bottled water changed, at least temporarily, as indicated in their descriptions of the water during feature listing.…”

“…That is, imagining the rewarding act of consuming water can bring on thoughts about the taste, mouthfeel, and energising effects of water, which in turn predicts motivation to drink it, more so than thinking about its health implications. These ndings are in line with the grounded cognition theory of desire and motivated behaviour, which suggests that consumption experiences of appetitive stimuli are stored in a multimodal memory representation, as a situated conceptualisation (14). When people reencounter the stimuli again, the memory is activated and the consumption experience that is stored in these multimodal representations, is reexperienced or simulated, which in turn may guide motivation (15).…”

“…In line with the grounded cognition approach, healthy drinking interventions should activate positive representations of a desired behaviour at moments when people need to make a drink choice (47). These positive representations can take many forms, such as emphasizing the sensory pleasure, the drinking enjoyment, feeling physically well after drinking, or even the approval of the behaviour by other people, as long as the perceived reward is immediate and is congruent with the product (14,47).…”

Habit, health, and socialising: New insights into diverse motives for consuming alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks

“…Perhaps this consistency reflects the usefulness of the Situated Action Cycle as a tool for understanding drinking behaviour. Because drinking tends to become repetitive, processes related to conditioning, habits, and reward operate as central mechanisms (see also Dutriaux et al, 2023;Papies et al, 2022Papies et al, , 2022Rodger et al, 2021). Once a habit has developed, relevant extrinsic or intrinsic cues (thirst, social situation) generate strong incentives (cravings) to perform and obtain expected rewards, such as positive (social) consequences and sensory enjoyment.…”

Pleasure vs. Identity: More Eating Simulation Language in Meat Posts than Plant-based Posts on Social Media #foodtalk

“…These simulations predict desire to consume a food or drink, as well as intake, even when controlling for consumption habits (Papies et al, 2021). Further, such eating simulations can be enhanced by appropriate context cues (e. g., a setting where one would eat the food), suggesting that eating context plays an important role in food desire through its effects on eating simulations (Papies, Barsalou, et al, 2022). Together, these findings show that simulations of eating and enjoying a food can reflect and increase desire for it, and that language can be used to tap into and activate such simulations.…”