Chang Betty P I, Webb Thomas L, Benn Yael
Centre for Research in Cognition and Neurosciences, Centre for Social and Cultural Psychology, Université Libre de Bruxelles Bruxelles, Belgium.
Department of Psychology, University of Sheffield Sheffield, UK.
Front Psychol. 2017 Feb 8;8:152. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00152. eCollection 2017.
Two studies examined peoples' reasons for not monitoring their progress toward their personal goals-a phenomenon that has been termed "the ostrich problem" (Webb et al., 2013). Study 1 used factor analysis to organize the reasons that people gave for not monitoring their goal progress, resulting in 10 factors. The most strongly endorsed reasons were: (a) that information on goal progress would demand a change in beliefs, or (b) undesired action; (c) that progress was poor, and (d) that thinking about and/or working on the goal was associated with negative emotions. Study 2 adopted a prospective design and investigated whether the reasons identified in Study 1 predicted: (a) the likelihood that participants would decline an opportunity to monitor their goal progress, and (b) the frequency with which participants monitored their goal progress. We found evidence that some of the most strongly endorsed reasons from Study 1 also predicted the avoidance of monitoring in Study 2; however, the belief that information about goal progress was likely to be inaccurate and not useful, and perceived control over goal attainment also reliably predicted the avoidance of monitoring in Study 2. Taken together, the findings explain why people do not monitor their goal progress and point to potential avenues for intervention.
两项研究考察了人们不监测自身朝着个人目标进展情况的原因——这一现象被称为“鸵鸟问题”（韦伯等人，2013年）。研究1运用因素分析来梳理人们给出的不监测目标进展的原因，得出了10个因素。得到最强烈认可的原因是：（a）目标进展信息会要求信念改变，或（b）有不期望的行动；（c）进展不佳，以及（d）思考和/或致力于该目标会引发负面情绪。研究2采用前瞻性设计，调查了研究1中确定的原因是否能预测：（a）参与者拒绝监测目标进展机会的可能性，以及（b）参与者监测目标进展的频率。我们发现有证据表明，研究1中一些得到最强烈认可的原因也能预测研究2中对监测的回避；然而，认为目标进展信息可能不准确且无用，以及对目标实现的感知控制也能可靠地预测研究2中对监测的回避。综合来看，这些发现解释了人们为何不监测目标进展，并指出了潜在的干预途径。
