Psychological “gel” to bind individuals’ goal pursuit: Gratitude facilitates goal contagion.

Abstract

Past research demonstrates that gratitude affects individuals' self-regulation of behavior primarily through engendering a prosocial tendency. Based on theories proposing that gratitude plays an unique role in fostering communal relationship (e.g., Algoe, 2012), we propose that gratitude can have an incidental effect in facilitating goal contagion: automatically inferring and adopting the goal implied by a social other's behavior. This hypothesis is supported in 3 studies. In Study 1, after being exposed to the behaviors of a social target that implied either a cooperative or a competitive goal, individuals adopted the respective goal and behaved accordingly in a Resource Dilemma Task. This occurred, however, only when they were feeling gratitude and not when they were feeling joy or a neutral mood. In Study 2, after being exposed to a social target's behavior that implied the goal to make money, people feeling gratitude, as compared to those feeling pride or a neutral mood, strove for a future opportunity to earn money. Study 3 further demonstrated that individuals' goal striving behavior was mediated by a heightened level of goal activation. Finally, it was found that gratitude facilitated goal contagion only when the social target was a member of participants' own social group. Through this mechanism, gratitude, thus, seems to bind one's self-regulation with those of social others. Theoretical and practical implications of this new perspective are discussed.

Reconsidering the roles of gratitude and indebtedness in social exchange

“…Rather than being just a psychological mechanism that upholds reciprocity, many researchers have proposed that gratitude plays a pivotal role in the development of social relationships (Algoe et al, 2013;Bartlett et al, 2012;Kubacka et al, 2011). Still, this proposition is primarily based on the observed effects of gratitude on reciprocity (Bartlett & DeSteno, 2006;Tsang, 2006b) and on the associations between the experience of gratitude and positive relational outcomes (closeness, conflict resolution, maintenance, goal contagion, mimicry) in social relationship (Algoe et al, 2013;Gordon et al, 2012;Grant & Gino, 2010;Jia, Lee, & Tong, 2015;Jia, Tong, & Lee, 2014;Kubacka et al, 2011;Lambert et al, 2010). Nevertheless, an actual demonstration of the relationship promoting effects of gratitude would require monitoring exchange processes over a long period, to investigate the ongoing dynamics between the reception of favours, the experience of gratitude, and the development of relational ties.…”

PREPRINT Inspired to lend a hand? Attempts to elicit prosocial behavior through goal contagion

“…As has been suggested by various studies in the domain of goal contagion (e.g., Aarts et al, 2004), but hardly ever tested Jia et al, 2014;Corcoran et al 2018), it is necessary for a goal to be correctly inferred in order to become contagious. Hence, we suspected goal inference to mediate the relationship between the goal manipulation and prosocial behavior.…”

“…Because being friendly to females could increase the likelihood of intimate relationships, Aarts and colleagues interpreted their male participant's increased willingness to help as a mean for attaining the automatically inferred goal of having casual sex. Several follow-up studies Aarts, Dijksterhuis, & De Vries, 2001;Dik & Aarts, 2007Loersch et al, 2008, Jia et al 2014, Contagion of Prosocial Behavior 5 Wessler and Hansen, 2017; see also Corcoran, Brohmer & Eckerstorfer, 2018) could validate the goal contagion hypothesis in the context of very distinct goals like academic achievements, earning money or quenching one's thirst. However, little of this research addresses prosocial behavior as goal to be elicited in observers.…”

“…Other studies on goal contagion focused on the goal to cooperate, which could be understood as another form of prosocial behavior (Loersch et al, 2008;Jia et al, 2014). For example, participants observed a team playing football cooperatively and then developed more cooperative strategies within hypothetical sport scenarios (Loersch et al, 2008).…”

“…There are a diverse range of moderators that has been investigated in the literature on goal contagion, such as effort of the observed person (Dik & Aarts, 2007), situational emotions (Jia et al, 2014) or the perceived social distance between the observer and the observed person (Wessler & Hansen, 2017). In the very first study on goal contagion by Aarts and colleagues (2004), participants' individual need for money moderated the relationship between the inferred goal (earning money vs. control) and the adoption of that goal (earning money): the goal was most contagious for those in high need for money.…”