| Abstract: | People sometimes find themselves doing things that they did not set out to do. The theory of action identification suggests that, under these circumstances, people will then continue to perform this action as newly understood. The present 2 experiments investigated this action emergence phenomenon. Each was designed to test the idea that people would embrace a new understanding of action—an emergent act identity—to the degree that this identity provided a more comprehensive understanding of the action than did a previous act identity. In Exp I, with 61 undergraduates, some Ss were induced to think about the details of the act of going to college (e.g., studying), whereas others were led to focus on more comprehensive meanings (e.g., preparing for a career). Those who concentrated on details were more susceptible to an emergent understanding of the act. They came to agree with an article that suggested that going to college results in improving one's sex life or impairing one's sex life. Exp II, with 40 undergraduates, revealed that emergent identification can be translated into emergent action. Ss who were induced to think about the details of drinking coffee—by drinking their coffee in unwieldy cups—were more susceptible than those who drank from normal cups to a suggested action identification. They came to believe that drinking coffee amounted to making themselves seek or avoid stimulation, and they subsequently followed the suggested action identification by turning up or down the volume of music they were hearing. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
