Goal priming as a situated intervention tool

Abstract

Research on goal priming has shown that cues in the environment can lead to goal-directed cognition and behaviour without the need for conscious intentions. This has sparked an interest in using goal priming as an intervention tool to strategically influence behaviour in line with an individual's long-term goals. The present article first gives a brief overview of goal priming effects and their mechanisms. Then, goal priming is discussed as a situated intervention tool that changes the cognitive responses triggered by a situation and can stimulate the pursuit of long-term investment goals over short-term hedonic goals. Applying the principle of situating interventions leads to a set of recommendations for applying goal primes effectively, which are illustrated with examples from various domains.

Full text

Goal priming 1
Goal priming as a situated intervention tool
Esther K. Papies
Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology, University of Glasgow, United Kingdom;
Dept. of Psychology, Utrecht University, The Netherlands
April 13, 2016
This paper is in press at Current Opinion in Psychology. For personal use only.
Address correspondence to: Esther K. Papies, Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology,
University of Glasgow, 58 Hillhead Street, Glasgow G12 8QB, United Kingdom,
esther.papies@glasgow.ac.uk.
The author declares no conflict of interest.
word count: 2143

Goal priming 2
Abstract
Research on goal priming has shown that cues in the environment can lead to goal-directed
cognition and behaviour without the need for conscious intentions. This has sparked an
interest in using goal priming as an intervention tool to strategically influence behaviour in
line with an individual’s long-term goals. The present article first gives a brief overview of
goal priming effects and their mechanisms. Then, goal priming is discussed as a situated
intervention tool that changes the cognitive responses triggered by a situation and can
stimulate the pursuit of long-term investment goals over short-term hedonic goals. Applying
the principle of situating interventions leads to a set of recommendations for applying goal
primes effectively, which are illustrated with examples from various domains.

Goal priming 3
Goal priming refers to the activation of a goal by external cues, which can affect
information processing and behaviour in an attempt to pursue the primed goal1. Here, a goal
is a state or behaviour that has reward value and therefore motivates a person to pursue it.
Goal priming effects have been shown in a variety of domains. Priming the goal of
impression formation leads to better memory organization and recall compared to a mere
memorization goal2, priming the concept of drinking can increase soda consumption when
participants are thirsty3, and priming “achievement” can increase motivation and effort at
difficult tasks among achievement-motivated individuals4. A recent meta-analysis has
demonstrated that priming participants with cues of religion increases pro-social behaviour,
especially among religious participants, thus among participants for whom the primed
concept has motivational significance5. A meta-analysis across domains has shown that the
exposure to goal-related words can reliably trigger goal-directed behaviour, and again
especially if the primed outcome is strongly valued by individuals6. Building on these
findings, I suggest here that priming outcomes that individuals value can be used to stimulate
the pursuit of long-term goals, and thus benefit individuals and society.
How does goal priming work? What are some of the mechanisms by which a simple
external cue, for example words or images representing a certain concept, can affect a
person’s behavior without the need for conscious reflection and intention? Through their
repeated pursuit, often in similar situations, goals are associated both with situational cues,
and with effective means for pursuing them. As a result, a situational cue can serve as a
prime to activate goal representations, which in turn can lead to goal-directed behaviours,
without the need for conscious intentions or awareness7–12. To the degree that the
representation of an outcome or behaviour is indeed desirable and thus associated with
reward, additional cognitive resources are recruited to support its pursuite.g., 11,13, for example
to keep the goal active in mind until a suitable opportunity for goal pursuit arises, and to

Goal priming 4
inhibit temptations that would interfere with goal pursuit9. In addition, nonconscious goals
are supported by seeing the world in ways that facilitate reaching them, for example by
perceiving relevant external stimuli as bigger in size, allocating more attention to them, and
evaluating them more positively when they serve an active goalfor a detailed review, see 9. Thus,
fundamental processes of learning and information processing are involved in facilitating the
effective pursuit of those things that individuals value, without requiring conscious intentions
and awarenesssee also 12.
The need for nonconscious intervention tools
The fact that external cues can trigger goal-directed behaviour without conscious
intentions has sparked interest in this aspect of nonconscious self-regulation among
researchers studying behaviour change, for example in the domain of health. Typically,
attempts to modify behaviour that rely on social psychological principles have been built
heavily on conscious intentions, such as in protection motivation theory or the theory of
planned behaviour14,15. More recently, however, we have clearly seen the limits of intentions
for behaviour changee.g., 16, with researchers requesting to “retire” the theory of planned
behaviour17 and to increase the focus on automatic, non-intentional processes e.g., 18–22.
Why do conscious intentions only have limited effectiveness for behaviour change?
Our current living environments tend to expose us to cues that activate well-ingrained habits
and short-term hedonic goals, such as indulging in tempting food or drink that provide
immediate pleasure, or spending financial and environmental resources on a fun new gadget.
Indeed, the exposure to a tempting stimulus is likely to trigger simulations of interacting with
it and enjoying it, making thoughts of a competing long-term goal less accessible10,12,23–25.
Especially under conditions of low inhibitory control and in busy and demanding
environments, the pursuit of long-term goals is then increasingly unlikely26–29. As a result,
pursuing short-term hedonic goals often comes at the cost of long-term investment goals,

Goal priming 5
such as one’s health later in life, or the maintenance of the planet for future generations30–33 –
even if we form conscious intentions to pursue them16. In order to enable the pursuit of a
long-term goal in such tempting environments, interventions should change the initial
responses to the critical situation such that the long-term goal is (re-)activated. This can be
achieved by situated interventions tools such as goal priming.
Situating intervention tools
I propose that intervention tools are situated if they take into account the cognitive
processes that are typically triggered in the critical situation in which behaviour change needs
to take place, and attempt to change these. Recently, I have suggested that such interventions
typically take the form cueing interventions, that modify which cognitive processes are
triggered by situational cues (e.g., goal priming, nudging), or of training interventions, that
modify the cognitive processes themselves (e.g., implementation intentions, approach-
avoidance retraining)21. In practice, an intervention can be situated by directly integrating it
into the critical situation, so that the situation is physically present during the intervention, as
in many goal priming interventions. Alternatively, an intervention can be situated by
integrating features of the critical situation into the intervention, so that a mental
representation of the situation is evoked while the intervention takes placesee 34, as is
sometimes done in training interventions. Critically, a situated intervention recognizes that
the behaviour that needs to be changed is influenced by cognitive processes triggered by the
situation, so that changing behaviour can only be achieved by changing the cognitive
responses that are activatedsee 21. Given the strong effects of situational cues on our
behaviour, especially through processes that occur outside of conscious awareness and are
therefore hard to control, I propose that situated interventions are more likely to be effective
for behaviour change than nonsituated interventions.

Goal priming 6
With regard to priming, a goal priming intervention can be considered situated to the
degree that primes activate a long-term goal representation directly in the critical situation.
This would be the case, for example, in a priming intervention where environmentally
conscious consumers are reminded of their goal of conserving resources by a banner on a
website, while they are in the process of deciding between holiday destinations reachable by
train or by a long-distance flight. If, however, the goal prime was included in an email
message that is read long before entering the holiday decision process, this intervention
should not be considered situated, as this procedure would make it less likely that the prime
actually changes the cognitive responses and resulting behaviour triggered by features of the
critical situation.
I will now discuss research on health goal priming, showing that goal primes can
function as situated intervention tools in both laboratory and field settings. Then, I will close
by discussing some important principles for applying goal primes as a situated intervention
tool, illustrated by examples from various domains.
Situated health goal priming
Controlled laboratory experiments have shown that exposing participants to cues
related to long-term health goals can trigger goal-directed behavior. Fishbach and colleagues,
for example, have shown that priming diet-concerned individuals with diet-relevant words or
images while they are making a food choice increases choices of healthy items35. More
recent work has shown that seeing or consuming healthy foods can reduce subsequent
unhealthy eating, mostly among dieters36–38. Similarly, viewing dieting advertisements while
snacking, compared to control or indulgent food advertisements, can prevent overeating on
unhealthy foods39–41 – whereas priming with food advertisements can conversely increase
snack intake42. Similarly, functional health claims on attractive foods can activate a health
goal, and therefore reduce consumption43. Even though this research was conducted in

Goal priming 7
controlled laboratory environments, goal primes were used in a situated manner as they were
integrated into the situations in which the critical behaviour took place. Further studies into
the underlying mechanisms of these effects suggest that priming participants with personal
long-term goals, including health goals, inhibits thoughts about short-term hedonic goals that
would interfere with the pursuit of their long-term goals and limits visual attention to cues for
such goals35,44,see also 45. Thus, goal primes may work by directing attention to information that
is congruent with the long-term investment goal46, at the expense of cues for conflicting
short-term hedonic goalssee 9,31.
Findings from field settings are largely consistent with those from situated laboratory
tests of goal priming. Papies and Hamstra47 placed a poster announcing a low-calorie recipe
on the inside of the glass door to a butcher store, which included words like “slim figure”,
“extra slim”, and “weight”. Compared to a control condition without such a poster,
customers who had been primed with the goal of healthy eating and dieting by means of the
poster consumed fewer of the freely available meat snacks, but only if they endorsed the goal
of dieting. This finding was later replicated conceptually in a restaurant, where the primes
were integrated into the menu and led to healthier menu choices among dieters48 (e.g.,
ordering a salad instead of a burger). In a recent study with a similar set-up, a poster priming
health or slimness next to a vending machine increased the sales of healthy items49. Finally, a
field experiment in a grocery store showed that while overweight customers bought more
unhealthy snacks in the control condition than normal-weight participants, their purchases of
such foods were strongly reduced when they received a flyer that included health and diet-
related words when entering the store50. Together, these studies show that goal primes can
effectively modify behaviour in situations in which short-term hedonic goals typically
prevail, and facilitate the pursuit of long-term health goals among those individuals who
value these goals.

Goal priming 8
Applying goal primes effectively
In order to apply goal primes effectively in situations where behaviour change in
favour of investment goals is desirable, a number of principles should be consideredsee 21. In
general, a situated approach to goal priming implies that there is not one single effective
priming strategy for all situations, even with regard to the same goal. The best
implementation of a goal priming intervention is likely to vary with features of the behaviour
in question, the situation in which it takes place, and the targeted individualssee also 12. More
specifically, the nature of a goal priming intervention should depend on what can motivate
the target person in the critical situation to perform the desired behaviour, given the
constraints of the situation.
First of all, an effective goal priming intervention should identify a target group of
individuals who value the long-term investment goal, since research on priming has clearly
shown that goal primes are more effective when the primed concept is motivationally
relevant e.g., 5,6,11,50. This could be, for example, individuals who are motivated to protect the
environment, to improve their productivity at work, or to improve their relationship
behavioursee also 33. Second, goal primes should activate the long-term motivation of these
individuals with effective cues, and these cues should be presented close to the decision point
– while making a critical consumer decision, while getting organized in the beginning of a
workday, or while in a relevant interpersonal interaction. Finally, goal primes can only work
if the primed individual knows which goal-directed behaviour can be performed in order to
pursue the long-term investment goal, and has access to such a behaviour – such as
identifying and being able to choose a sustainable consumer product, an effective time
management plan, or a forgiving, rather than an escalating response to a partner. These
principles see 21, for a more detailed discussion illustrate that a goal prime is most likely to be effective if
it takes into account the characteristics of the individual, the critical situation, and the effects

Goal priming 9
of the situation on the individual34. This way, applying the notion of situating an intervention
leads to a systematic set of recommendations for effective use of goal primes – and most
likely, for other intervention tools, too.
Conclusion
Goal priming effects have been demonstrated in a wide variety of domains, provided
that the primed concept is motivationally relevant to the perceiver in the given situation.
Based on this general finding, I have argued that goal primes can be used as situated
intervention tools by integrating them into the critical situations, in order to change which
cognitive responses are activated by the situation and influence behaviour. This is
particularly important given our current living environment, where short-term hedonic goals
are much more likely to be activated and pursued in response to environmental cues than
long-term investment goals. While much recent debating has focused on conditions for
replicating priming effects, the current paper aims to put our advances in theorizing about
goal priming mechanisms to good use for the future51, and to make them available for
applications to benefit individual and societal health. Future research to further bolster this
approach should study in more detail the recommendations that were derived from applying
the notion of situated interventions to goal priming as outlined here, and should examine the
conditions under which priming can be used to stimulate beneficial goal pursuit over
extended periods of time.

Goal priming 10
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