On the instigation of implicit motivation: How deprivation and positive affect cause motivated behavior

Abstract

This dissertation deals with the question how people become motivated to perform specific actions without giving it much conscious thought. For example, how does it come that you mindlessly drink a glass of beer in one gulp? Based on a review of the literature, a framework to understand motivated behavior is presented, which is then tested in three empirical chapters. The framework proposes that the accessibility of mental representations of behaviors is crucial for motivated behavior to occur, however that actual motivation depends on the rewarding value of a behavior, which can be modulated either by (1) deprivation or (2) result from an association of the behavior representation with positive affect. A first series of studies tested whether the accessibility of behavior representations played the assumed key role for behaviors motivated by states of deprivation. It is shown that fluid deprivation results in motivation to drink water, but that this effect is moderated by the accessibility of the drinking representation. In a second set of studies it is shown that both behaviors motivated by deprivation and by an association with positive affect are able to affect the human mind on a very basic perceptual level, so as to facilitate goal pursuit nonconsciously. Specifically, goal-instrumental objects (e.g., pen) were perceived as being bigger when motivated (e.g., to write). In a final line of research, the combined effects of deprivation and an association of behavior representations with positive affect were tested in a single research design. It was shown that experimentally attaching positive affect to the behavior of drinking water increased motivation for this behavior for non-deprived participants, but that this manipulation did not affect motivation of deprived participants for whom motivation to drink was already high. Nonetheless, reducing this deprivation by means of an atypical action (eating) reduced subsequent water intake of control participants, but not for participants for whom a positive affective tag was attached to this behavior. Thus, the studies presented in the dissertation support the notion that motivated behavior depends on accessible mental behavior representations and on deprivation or positive affect as two distinctive sources of motivation.