Preparatory action and belief in the probable occurrence of future events.

This study was conducted to determine the influence of behaving as if an event will occur on the belief that it will occur. It was hypothesized that such behavior should increase the belief in the likelihood of the event occurring. Ss (volunteer female high school students) were told that ? the Ss who volunteered would have to take an exam, but not whether they were in that group (50% probability). All Ss were required to do some preparatory study; ? were told to memorize the data in preparatory for the exam, ? to only acquaint themselves casually with it. Ss were then asked their assessment of the probability that they were included in the group to be tested. A larger percentage of the group that had to make the greatest effort (memorize vs. acquaint) believed they would have to take the test. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)