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In the Land of the Free, Interdependence Undermines Americans’ Motivation to Act
http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/news/releases/in-the-land-of-the-free-interdependence-undermines-americans-motivation-to-act.html[font face=Serif] January 22, 2013
For Immediate Release
Contact: Anna Mikulak
Association for Psychological Science
202.293.9300
amikulak@psychologicalscience.org
[font size=5]In the Land of the Free, Interdependence Undermines Americans’ Motivation to Act[/font]
[font size=3]Public campaigns that call upon people to think and act interdependently may undermine motivation for many Americans, according to new research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
…
“Decades of research in the social sciences have shown that fostering people’s sense of independence is the most effective driver of behavior among Americans. We suspected that while Americans might say they like the idea of working together and cooperating, such appeals may not motivate them to action,” says Hamedani.
In two different experiments, the researchers found that European Americans who were primed to think about interdependent behavior were less likely to persist at challenging tasks. They gave up sooner than European Americans primed to think about independence. In one study, they spent about four minutes less working on the task than those primed with independent behavior or than those who received no prime. These results suggest that the interdependence prime actually decreased their motivation to keep working on the task.
…
A better strategy for motivating action among European Americans, according to Hamedani and her colleagues, may be to encourage individual effort for the good of the team or collective, urging each individual to “be the change YOU want to see in the world.”
…[/font][/font]
For Immediate Release
Contact: Anna Mikulak
Association for Psychological Science
202.293.9300
amikulak@psychologicalscience.org
[font size=5]In the Land of the Free, Interdependence Undermines Americans’ Motivation to Act[/font]
[font size=3]Public campaigns that call upon people to think and act interdependently may undermine motivation for many Americans, according to new research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
…
“Decades of research in the social sciences have shown that fostering people’s sense of independence is the most effective driver of behavior among Americans. We suspected that while Americans might say they like the idea of working together and cooperating, such appeals may not motivate them to action,” says Hamedani.
In two different experiments, the researchers found that European Americans who were primed to think about interdependent behavior were less likely to persist at challenging tasks. They gave up sooner than European Americans primed to think about independence. In one study, they spent about four minutes less working on the task than those primed with independent behavior or than those who received no prime. These results suggest that the interdependence prime actually decreased their motivation to keep working on the task.
…
A better strategy for motivating action among European Americans, according to Hamedani and her colleagues, may be to encourage individual effort for the good of the team or collective, urging each individual to “be the change YOU want to see in the world.”
…[/font][/font]