Bargh John A, Green Michelle, Fitzsimons Gráinne
Yale University.
Soc Cogn. 2008 Oct;26(5):534-554. doi: 10.1521/soco.2008.26.5.534.
Three experiments tested the hypothesis that consciously intended goal pursuits have unintended consequences for social judgment and behavior. From evolutionary theory (Dawkins 1976/2006) and empirical evidence of a nonconscious mode of goal pursuit (Bargh, 2005) we derive the hypothesis that most human goal pursuits are open-ended in nature: Once active, goals will operate on goal-relevant content in the environment, even if that content is not the intended focus of the conscious goal. Experiments 1 and 2 demonstrate that goals to evaluate a job applicant for either a waiter or crime reporter position also shape impressions of incidental bystanders in the situation, such that the bystander is later liked or disliked not on his own merits, but on how well his behavior matches the criteria consciously applied in evaluating the job applicant. Experiment 3 finds that a goal to help a specific target person spills over to influence actions toward incidental bystanders, but only while active. Implications of these findings for goal pursuit in everyday life are discussed.
有意识地追求目标会对社会判断和行为产生意想不到的后果。从进化理论（道金斯，1976/2006）以及目标追求的无意识模式的实证证据（巴格，2005）中，我们得出以下假设：大多数人类目标追求本质上是开放式的：目标一旦激活，就会作用于环境中与目标相关的内容，即使该内容并非有意识目标的预期焦点。实验1和实验2表明，为服务员或犯罪记者职位评估求职者的目标也会塑造对情境中偶然旁观者的印象，以至于后来对旁观者的喜欢或厌恶并非基于其自身的优点，而是基于其行为与评估求职者时有意识应用的标准的匹配程度。实验3发现，帮助特定目标人物的目标会扩散开来，影响对偶然旁观者的行为，但仅在目标激活时才会如此。本文讨论了这些发现对日常生活中目标追求的启示。
