School of Management, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
Faculty of Economics and Business, HRM & OB, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.
PLoS One. 2018 Apr 30;13(4):e0196269. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0196269. eCollection 2018.
This study examines the consequences of mindset switching on behavioral choices in want/should conflicts. Building on the insights of the ego depletion literature, we propose that mindset switching depletes individuals' self-control resources and therefore prompts the choice of want behavior, which provides immediate pleasure, over should behavior, which provides long-term utility. Four laboratory experiments with university students that stimulated individuals to switch mindsets were conducted to test our hypotheses. Experiment 1 demonstrated that switching between individualist and collectivist mindsets increased the subjects' tendency to prefer popular magazines over scientific journals. Experiment 2 replicated the results by testing the relationship between an abstract/concrete mindset-switching task and want/should online behavioral choices. The mediating effect of ego depletion was also supported. Experiment 3 retested the main effect of language-switching on reading choices, and the mediating effect of ego-depletion. Experiment 3 also tested the moderating effect of the Need for Cognition, and eliminated the alternative explanation of cognitive fatigue. In Experiment 4, actual food choices were used as the direct measure of want/should behaviors to test the robustness of our findings. The results consistently supported our hypotheses that mindset switching has significant effects on behavioral choices in terms of overindulgence, such as increasing want behavior and thus foregoing should behavior.
本研究考察了思维模式转换对想要/应该冲突中行为选择的影响。基于自我损耗文献的见解，我们提出思维模式转换会消耗个体的自我控制资源，从而促使他们选择即时满足的想要行为，而不是提供长期效用的应该行为。通过四个针对大学生的实验室实验来检验我们的假设，这些实验激发了个体的思维模式转换。实验 1 表明，在个体主义和集体主义思维模式之间切换会增加被试者选择流行杂志而非科学期刊的倾向。实验 2 通过测试抽象/具体思维模式转换任务与想要/应该在线行为选择之间的关系，复制了结果。自我损耗的中介效应也得到了支持。实验 3 重新测试了语言转换对阅读选择的主要影响，以及自我损耗的中介效应。实验 3 还测试了认知需求的调节作用，排除了认知疲劳的替代解释。在实验 4 中，实际的食物选择被用作想要/应该行为的直接衡量标准，以检验我们发现的稳健性。结果一致支持了我们的假设，即思维模式转换对过度放纵等行为选择有显著影响，例如增加想要行为，从而放弃应该行为。
