Department of Psychology, Columbia University.
Department of Psychology, Wilfrid Laurier University.
J Pers Soc Psychol. 2018 May;114(5):735-765. doi: 10.1037/pspi0000119. Epub 2018 Jan 29.
Social support can sometimes have negative consequences for recipients. One way of circumventing these negative effects is to provide support in an 'invisible' or indirect manner, such that recipients do not construe the behavior as a supportive act. However, little is known about how recipients' motivational states influence when visible (direct) support or invisible support is more beneficial. Using the framework of Regulatory Mode Theory, we predicted that recipients motivated to engage in critical evaluation (i.e., those with a predominant assessment motivation) would find invisible support more beneficial than visible support, whereas recipients motivated to initiate action (i.e., those with a predominant locomotion motivation) would find visible support more beneficial than invisible support. Findings from one 2 × 2 experiment (Study 1), two laboratory experiments (Studies 2-3), one dyadic study involving support conversations between friends (Study 4), and a meta-analysis aggregating data from all four studies supported these hypotheses. As predicted, support outcomes were better for assessment predominant recipients following invisible support, but were better for locomotion predominant recipients following visible support. Results indicate that support attempts could be made more effective by considering both support visibility and recipient motivation. (PsycINFO Database Record
社会支持有时会对接受者产生负面影响。一种规避这些负面影响的方法是以“隐形”或间接的方式提供支持，使接受者不会将这种行为视为支持行为。然而，对于接受者的动机状态如何影响可见（直接）支持或隐形支持更有益，我们知之甚少。本研究运用调节定向理论的框架，预测具有批判性评价动机（即评估动机占主导地位的接受者）的人会发现隐形支持比可见支持更有益，而具有行动启动动机（即运动动机占主导地位的接受者）的人会发现可见支持比隐形支持更有益。一项 2×2 实验（研究 1）、两项实验室实验（研究 2-3）、一项涉及朋友之间支持对话的双体研究（研究 4）以及对四项研究数据的元分析的结果支持了这些假设。正如预测的那样，对于评估主导的接受者，隐形支持的效果更好，而对于运动主导的接受者，可见支持的效果更好。研究结果表明，通过考虑支持的可见性和接受者的动机，可以使支持尝试更有效。
