The conflict mindset: How internal conflicts affect self‐regulation

Abstract

Internal conflicts are inherent to individuals' everyday experience. In this paper, we present the idea of the “conflict mindset.” We argue that internal conflicts evoke a unique information processing strategy that builds on the simultaneous accessibility of two (or more) conflicting alternatives. Once a conflict is activated, the procedure underlying it is primed and can be applied to any relevant subsequent judgment that need not overlap in content with the conflict that originally gave rise to the mindset. We present research demonstrating that the conflict mindset broadens cognitive scope, as well as serves a proactive function for resolving subsequent conflicts. We further describe both intra‐personal and inter‐personal implications of the conflict mindset on an array of variables. We briefly discuss other mindsets that share common features with the conflict mindset, elaborate on the uniqueness of the conflict mindset compared to other cognitive and motivational processes, and present lingering questions and future directions.

Interactive effects of message framing and information content on carbon offsetting behaviors

“…In the current research context, if tourists are in a hedonic, experience-oriented mindset, then gain-framed messages will be congruent with their mindset, leading to a higher level of perceived self-relevance. In contrast, the presentation of a negative-framed message will lead to a conflicted mindset, leading to a self-regulation behavior that prevents people from conducting any further actions that expand the conflict ( Kleiman & Enisman, 2018 ). For this reason, loss framing may prevent tourists from processing the information systematically and decrease the persuasive effectiveness of the message, leading to a smaller change in purchase intention.…”

“…Based on HSM, the combination of this objective information will lead to greater changes in the amount that consumers are willing to pay. Conversely, if a message is loss-framed consumers are less likely to spend effort on processing this objective information due to the incongruence with their mindset ( Kleiman & Enisman, 2018 ). Therefore, the following hypotheses were developed.…”

Moving Beyond Two Goals: An Integrative Review and Framework for the Study of Multiple Goals

“…Sheldon, 1995). When goal conflicts are activated, the conflict mindset increases systematic information search (Kleiman & Hassin, 2013) and reduces confirmatory biases (Kleiman & Enisman, 2018; Kleiman & Hassin, 2013). When a goal conflict predicts positive or negative outcomes is still a question that needs further attention.…”

Mitigating the Default? The Influence of Ingroup Diversity on Outgroup Trust

“…On a broader level, cognitive flexibility is enhanced through the mental simulation of conflicting alternatives (Kleiman & Enisman, 2018;Winter et al, 2021) -which should also be involved in inconsistency resolution after diversifying experiences. With regard to the current research and in line with the CPAG model, increased cognitive flexibility has an impact on outgroup related judgements.…”