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Cited by 1,865Behavioral Health and InterventionsSocial and Intergroup PsychologyPsychology of Social Influence

The automated will: nonconscious activation and pursuit of behavioral goals.

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Bargh, John A., Gollwitzer, Peter M., Lee-Chai, Annette, Barndollar, Kimberly, Trötschel, Roman·2001·Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
DOI 10.1037/0022-3514.81.6.1014PMC PMC3005626
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Abstract

It is proposed that goals can be activated outside of awareness and then operate nonconsciously to guide self-regulation effectively (J. A. Bargh, 1990). Five experiments are reported in which the goal either to perform well or to cooperate was activated, without the awareness of participants, through a priming manipulation. In Experiment 1 priming of the goal to perform well caused participants to perform comparatively better on an intellectual task. In Experiment 2 priming of the goal to cooperate caused participants to replenish a commonly held resource more readily. Experiment 3 used a dissociation paradigm to rule out perceptual-construal alternative explanations. Experiments 4 and 5 demonstrated that action guided by nonconsciously activated goals manifests two classic content-free features of the pursuit of consciously held goals. Nonconsciously activated goals effectively guide action, enabling adaptation to ongoing situational demands.

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  • One of these conflicting unconscious goals can become more dominant than another, thus preventing the individual from becoming aware of the less dominant goal.

    “One of these conflicting unconscious goals can become more dominant than another (Moskowitz et al., 1999; Bargh et al., 2001), thus preventing the individual from becoming aware of the less dominant goal (Moskowitz et al., 1999).”

    From The Psychological Pathway to Suicide Attempts: A Strategy of Control Without Awareness (2021) · cites this paper as Bargh et al., 2001

    The Results and Discussion (page unavailable) say that nonconscious goals can conflict with other nonconscious influences, and describe an automatically activated fairness goal inhibiting stereotypic beliefs. This supports the possibility of one nonconscious influence prevailing, but the paper does not establish dominance between two conflicting unconscious goals. The separate claim about awareness is cited only to Moskowitz et al., not to this source. (LLM, conf=0.78)

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  • Individuals have goals which they are not consciously aware of, and these unconscious goals can conflict with each other.

    “The theoretical idea of limited awareness is consistent with findings from cognitive psychology literature that individuals have goals which they are not consciously aware of, and that these unconscious goals can conflict with each other (Bargh et al., 2001).”

    From The Psychological Pathway to Suicide Attempts: A Strategy of Control Without Awareness (2021) · cites this paper as Bargh et al., 2001

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Research works printed but not linked: 8

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Authors
Bargh, J. A., Gollwitzer, P. M., Lee-Chai, A., Barndollar, K., & Trötschel, R.
Affiliations
  • New York University (US)
  • University of Konstanz (DE)
ORCID
Venue
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
Publisher
American Psychological Association (APA)
Published
2001
Volume
81
Issue
6
Pages
1014-1027
ISSN
  • 0022-3514 (ISSN-L)
  • 1939-1315
DOI
10.1037/0022-3514.81.6.1014
PMC
PMC3005626
OpenAlex
W2171838050
Cited by
1,865
References
120
Citations by year
2026: 20 · 2025: 31 · 2024: 31 · 2023: 38 · 2022: 46 · 2021: 69 · 2020: 123 · 2019: 77 · 2018: 67 · 2017: 81 · 2016: 89 · 2015: 98 · 2014: 118 · 2013: 145 · 2012: 122
FWCI
39.13
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
  • KOPS (University of Konstanz) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
Funders
National Institute of Mental Health (R01MH060767)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Behavioral Health and Interventions
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Psychology of Social Influence
Keywords
implicit goals, goal pursuit, self-regulation, priming, goal-directed behavior, cooperation, performance goals, resource replenishment, construal level
MeSH terms
Adaptation, Psychological, Automatism, Behavior, Cues, Goals, Humans, Psychomotor Performance, Random Allocation, Unconscious, Psychology

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