Popularisation, extremely short
When intentions go public: does social reality widen the intention-behavior gap?
Source
New York University, Psychology Department, New York, NY 10003, USA. peter.gollwitzer@nyu.edu
Abstract
Based on Lewinian goal theory in general and self-completion theory in particular, four experiments examined the implications of other people taking notice of one's identity-related behavioral intentions (e.g., the intention to read law periodicals regularly to reach the identity goal of becoming a lawyer). Identity-related behavioral intentions that had been noticed by other people were translated into action less intensively than those that had been ignored (Studies 1-3). This effect was evident in the field (persistent striving over 1 week's time; Study 1) and in the laboratory (jumping on opportunities to act; Studies 2 and 3), and it held among participants with strong but not weak commitment to the identity goal (Study 3). Study 4 showed, in addition, that when other people take notice of an individual's identity-related behavioral intention, this gives the individual a premature sense of possessing the aspired-to identity.
If you have tags to suggest please do and I'll edit them in.
Announcing one's goals to the general public is harmful. But how about having a group of people with similar goals -- would sharing the goals inside the group harm too?
(My model here is based on human as a social animal. Scenario 1: You announce your goal. Others mostly ignore you; or give you token support, which you feel is not genuine. You get a feedback that your goal is not important for the group, so your brain lowers the goal priority. Scenario 2: You announce your goal in a supportive group; you get a feedback that the goal is important for the group; your brain raises the goal priority.)