The Fuqua School of Business and Department of Psychology, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA.
Psychol Sci. 2011 Mar;22(3):369-75. doi: 10.1177/0956797610397955. Epub 2011 Feb 8.
Three studies demonstrate a novel phenomenon--self-regulatory outsourcing--in which thinking about how other people can be instrumental (i.e., helpful) for a given goal undermines motivation to expend effort on that goal. In Experiment 1, participants who thought about how their partner helped them with health goals (as opposed to career goals) planned to spend less time and effort on health goals in the upcoming week. This pattern was stronger for depleted participants than for nondepleted participants. In Experiment 2, participants who thought about how their partner helped them with academic-achievement goals procrastinated more, leaving themselves less time for an academic task, than did participants in two control conditions. This pattern was stronger for participants who were told that procrastinating would drain their resources for the academic task than for participants who were told that procrastinating would not drain their resources for that task. In Experiment 3, participants who decreased their effort after thinking of an instrumental significant other reported higher relationship commitment to that individual than did participants who did not decrease their effort. The possibility for shared (or transactive) self-regulation is discussed.
三项研究表明了一种新现象——自我调节外包，即思考他人如何有助于实现特定目标会削弱为该目标付出努力的动机。在实验 1 中，与思考职业目标相比，参与者思考伴侣如何帮助他们实现健康目标（相对于职业目标）时，他们计划在未来一周内投入更少的时间和精力来实现健康目标。这种模式在资源枯竭的参与者中比在非资源枯竭的参与者中更为明显。在实验 2 中，与两个对照组的参与者相比，那些思考伴侣如何帮助他们实现学术成就目标的参与者更有可能拖延，留给自己完成学术任务的时间更少。对于那些被告知拖延会耗尽他们完成学术任务的资源的参与者来说，这种模式比那些被告知拖延不会耗尽他们完成该任务的资源的参与者更为明显。在实验 3 中，与那些在思考了一个有帮助的重要他人后减少努力的参与者相比，没有减少努力的参与者对该个体的关系承诺更高。讨论了共享（或交互）自我调节的可能性。
