“Participate with a Friend” Study: RESULTS FEEDBACK
Why did we run this study?
This study examines how talking about goals might change people’s goal commitment and help them stick to their planned goal pursuit. Having conversations with other people about one’s goal may impact how hard people work on their goals. This was an experimental study, in which participants were either asked to talk about their goal with the other person they were participating with or asked to keep their goal private. This will allow us to see how talking about goals may impact our main dependent variables, such as goal commitment and goal pursuit effort.
Who participated?
239 pairs of students participated in the study. In each pair, one person was asked to think of a goal (the “actor”) and one person was not (the “partner”). Hald of the pairs were aske dto have a conversation about the goal and the other half kept the goal private.
Once week later, everyone received an email to an online followup survey. 210 students completed this survey (95 “actors” and 105 “partners”). They reported how much time and effort they invested into the goal and how much other people had helped them with their goal.
NOTE: The winner of the $200 lottery was contacted on March 31st and has accepted the prize. Thank you to everyone who completed the follow-up survey!
What did we find?
Actors assigned to have a conversation about their goal reported greater goal pursuit effort during the week following their goal conversation (M = 4.51, SD = 1.59) than actors assigned to keep their goal private (M = 3.63, SD = 1.63), t(93) = 2.64, p = .010, d = .55. The extent to which both actors reported having received help for their goals from others or the extent to which partner reported helping the actor with their goals did not differ by condition.
What does this mean?
Telling other people about your goal(s) might motivate you to invest more time and effort into pursuing these goals. However, it might not be enough to elicit help towards the goal from others – who helps others with goals might be determined by their relationship, personality or available time rather than simply knowing about a goal.
Where can I learn more?
For general information on research on goals, please access the website below or see the following sources: https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/insight-therapy/202405/the-power-of-imagination-in-achieving-your-goals
Harrist, S., Carlozzi, B. L., McGovern, A. R., & Harrist, A. W. (2007). Benefits of expressive writing and expressive talking about life goals. Journal of Research in Personality, 41(4), 923–930.
Klein, H. J., Lount, R. B., Park, H. M., & Linford, B. J. (2020). When goals are known: The effects of audience relative status on goal commitment and performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 105(4), 372–389.