Situational Cue Research Articles

Experiencing motivational conflict on social media in a crisis situation: The case of the Chick-fil-A same-sex marriage controversy

This study examined the relationship between motivational conflict involving social media use and attitude formation in a brand crisis situation. An online experiment was conducted with 658 participants using a 2 (news-article valence: positive vs. negative) × 2 (situational cue valence: positive vs. negative) between-subjects design. During the experiment, participants loyal to Chick-fil-A (defense-motivated) were asked to communicate the brand through the brand's social networking sites (SNSs) while receiving a cue for the SNS audience's general unfavorable opinions on the crisis issue, the Chick-fil-A same-sex marriage controversy (impression-motivated). It was found that when motivational conflict was experienced (defense vs. impression), (1) individuals' brand attitudes were affected more by objective information such as a news article than by a cue for audience opinion and (2) their positive brand-related cognitions were countervailed by their impression-related cognitions. Overall, the findings suggest that it is not always desirable for a company to encourage customers to engage in SNS-facilitated interaction in a crisis situation.

The Compensatory Role of Implementation Intentions for Young Adults with Low Working Memory Capacity

SummaryMany factors improve prospective memory performance both inside and outside of the laboratory, including the detailed planning of the situational cue and intended action (i.e., implementation intentions). In the current study, we obtained measures of working memory capacity and laboratory event‐based prospective memory performance in college‐aged adults. Half of our participants formed an implementation intention in the prospective memory task. Because of evidence that implementation intentions increase the encoding/retrieval efficiency of the prospective memory, it was predicted that forming an implementation intention would serve as a compensatory strategy for those with low working memory ability. Our results supported this hypothesis in that working memory capacity no longer correlated with prospective memory performance when participants employed an implementation intention encoding strategy. These findings suggest that implementation intentions may be an effective way for individuals with low working memory capacity to improve their performance in an attentionally demanding prospective memory task. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Impact of Giving on Self and Impact of Self on Giving

ABSTRACTRecent research suggests that consumers are spending billions of dollars in interpersonal and self‐gifting and yet, there is limited research regarding the giver's role of self and how this influences the choice of gift. Because self is so intertwined in both types of giving, the research reported here explores if different dimensions of the malleable self will be activated in various gift‐giving contexts, depending upon the receiver and the occasion of the gift. Testing a conceptual model that for the first time combines both types of giving, this research uses three studies to explore how the gift‐giving context can act as a situational cue and make accessible a particular view of the self, namely the giver's gender identity and self‐construal to motivate choice of gift. Results suggest a new paradigm for considering consumer gift behavior and have theoretical and practical implications for advertising, selling, and other marketing contexts.

Speaking Up for the Greater Good: Prosocial Motivation and Voice in Unfavorable Contexts

Considerable research demonstrates that employees are more likely to speak up in favorable contexts, providing little insight into the forces that motivate employees to express voice in the face of unfavorable contexts. According to motivated information processing theory, prosocial motivation may be a catalyst for voice in unfavorable contexts, as prosocially motivated employees are willing to accept the personal costs of speaking up in light of the group benefits. However, trait activation theory suggests the opposite: prosocially motivated employees may be particularly sensitive to context favorability as a relevant situational cue that their ideas will be considered and utilized. We test these competing hypotheses about the moderating role of prosocial motivation across two field studies using different measures to assess employees’ perceptions of context favorability and prosocial motivation, as well as supervisors’ ratings of voice. In Study 1, with employees at a military base, prosocial motivation...

Bridging the intention–behavior gap: Inducing implementation intentions through persuasive appeals

The potential of using implementation intentions—action plans that link a critical situational cue to a specific goal-directed behavior—to bridge the intention–behavior gap in consumer behavior has been limited by the practice of using explicit instructions to induce the construct. In two studies, we therefore tested the effectiveness of an indirect, persuasive strategy that benefits from the positive consequences of implementation intentions by ‘mimicking’ their underlying psychological processes. Experiment 1 showed that a strategy presenting vivid information on critical cues and appropriate behavioral responses affected mental imagery. Experiment 2 demonstrated that this strategy affected actual purchase behavior.

A case study of decision making in emergencies

The on-duty death of firefighters is a serious socio-economic issue. Research has identified significant risks associated with command, equipment, human error and standard operating procedures in emergency situations. We report the findings of a case study how an incident commander (the crew commander of the first fire and rescue appliance arriving at an incident) makes tactical decisions in emergency situations in the Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service. Grounded in the naturalistic decision-making (NDM) paradigm, we simulated emergency rescue situations and recorded the response of strategic and incident commanders to these scenarios. Our findings are supported by elements of the emergency management and command, and organisational decision-making literatures, and while based on a small sample, offer answers to key issues posed by the NDM literature. In particular, we stress the need for the further development of training based on situational cue recognition, and suggest that this may have a wider role in leadership training.

Reducing the Expression of Implicit Stereotypes: Reflexive Control Through Implementation Intentions

The authors tested the effectiveness of implementation intentions as a strategy for limiting the behavioral expression of implicit stereotypes. Implementation intentions are if-then plans that link an intended response to an anticipated situational cue, thereby enabling a reflexive form of control. The authors examined whether two different types of implementation intentions could improve response accuracy on the Shooter Task, a reaction time measure of implicit stereotyping. In Study 1, participants used a distraction-inhibiting implementation intention designed to engage control over the perception of goal-irrelevant stimuli (e.g., race). In Study 2, participants used a response-facilitating implementation intention designed to promote goal-directed action. Across studies, implementation intentions improved accuracy, thereby limiting the behavioral expression of implicit stereotypes. Furthermore, process dissociation analyses indicated that the distraction-inhibiting implementation intention increased controlled processing while reducing automatic stereotype activation, whereas the response-facilitating implementation intention increased only controlled processing. Implications for goal strategy approaches to reducing prejudice are discussed.

Implementation intention encoding does not automatize prospective memory responding

An implementation intention encoding, one that specifies the concrete situation that is appropriate for initiating an intended action and links that situational cue to the intended action, has been shown to improve prospective memory. One proposed mechanism is that implementation intentions create automatized prospective remembering. This view anticipates that implementation intentions should prevent prospective memory decline in highly cognitively demanding situations. Contrary to this expectation, although implementation intention encoding enhanced prospective memory (Experiments 1 and 2), implementation-intention encoding did not buffer against significant prospective memory decline in high-cognitive-demand conditions (Experiments 1-3), and in Experiment 3, implementation intention encoding produced lower levels of prospective memory performance than did behavioral practice in the high-cognitive-demand situation. We suggest that although implementation intentions may stimulate a strong associative encoding (between an anticipated environmental cue and an intended action), that encoding does not support a completely automatized prospective memory response.

The automatic component of habit in health behavior: Habit as cue-contingent automaticity.

Habit might be usefully characterized as a form of automaticity that involves the association of a cue and a response. Three studies examined habitual automaticity in regard to different aspects of the cue-response relationship characteristic of unhealthy and healthy habits. In each study, habitual automaticity was assessed by the Self-Report Habit Index (SRHI). In Study 1 SRHI scores correlated with attentional bias to smoking cues in a Stroop task. Study 2 examined the ability of a habit cue to elicit an unwanted habit response. In a prospective field study, habitual automaticity in relation to smoking when drinking alcohol in a licensed public house (pub) predicted the likelihood of cigarette-related action slips 2 months later after smoking in pubs had become illegal. In Study 3 experimental group participants formed an implementation intention to floss in response to a specified situational cue. Habitual automaticity of dental flossing was rapidly enhanced compared to controls. The studies provided three different demonstrations of the importance of cues in the automatic operation of habits. Habitual automaticity assessed by the SRHI captured aspects of a habit that go beyond mere frequency or consistency of the behavior.

Comparing implementation intention interventions in relation to young adults’ intake of fruit and vegetables

This study tests whether the effectiveness of implementation intention-based interventions to increase fruit and vegetable intake in a young adult population can be enhanced using additional pre-intervention instructions and alternative formats; namely, an ‘if-then’ implementation intention versus a more general, ‘global’ plan that does not explicitly link a situational cue with a goal-directed response. Participants (N = 557) completed pre-test measures of planning, motivation and behaviour with respect to increasing their fruit and vegetable intake before being randomised to a 3 (intervention format: control vs. ‘if-then’ vs. ‘global’ implementation intentions) × 2 (pre-intervention instruction vs. no pre-intervention instruction) between-participants design. Results revealed a significant intervention format by time interaction, such that intake significantly increased by 0.50 portions in the if-then format condition compared with 0.31 in the global format and 0.01 in the control condition. These results suggest that ‘if-then’ manipulations are superior in promoting behaviour change in an applied setting. The use of pre-intervention instructions had no additional effect on behaviour, providing evidence for the efficacy of implementation intentions even when experimenter demand is reduced. Evidence is also presented to suggest that reported increases in intake are not related to demand characteristics.

Signaling Threat

This study examined the cues hypothesis, which holds that situational cues, such as a setting's features and organization, can make potential targets vulnerable to social identity threat. Objective and subjective measures of identity threat were collected from male and female math, science, and engineering (MSE) majors who watched an MSE conference video depicting either an unbalanced ratio of men to women or a balanced ratio. Women who viewed the unbalanced video exhibited more cognitive and physiological vigilance, and reported a lower sense of belonging and less desire to participate in the conference, than did women who viewed the gender-balanced video. Men were unaffected by this situational cue. The implications for understanding vulnerability to social identity threat, particularly among women in MSE settings, are discussed.

Think Leader, Think Male and Female: Sex vs. Seating Arrangement as Leadership Cues

This investigation challenged the long-accepted male-oriented ideology of “think male, think leader” by using social and gender identity theoretical frameworks to examine same-gender biases and the situational leadership cue of the end-of-the-table position. In an experiment consisting of 241 undergraduates enrolled in a large southwestern university in the U.S. (105 men, 135 women, and 1 sex unreported), participants viewed diagrams of male and female figures, in either same-sex or mixed-sex groups, and selected a leader. The end-of-the-table cue held, but the 120 participants (74 women, 46 men) shown mixed-sex groups with a man and a woman shown at both ends of a table chose same-gender leaders significantly more than opposite-gender leaders. Whereas the results suggest that the “think leader, think male” ideology still holds among young men, findings also demonstrated a shift away from this ideology among young women.

Action Control by Implementation Intentions: Effective Cue Detection and Efficient Response Initiation

Past research has demonstrated that implementation intentions (i.e., if–then plans) facilitate goal striving by two processes: increasing the activation of the anticipated situational cue (the if–process) and automating the goal–directed response to that cue (the then–process; Gollwitzer, 1999; Webb & Sheeran, in press). Two studies investigated the implications for the course of goal striving guided by implementation intentions. When implementation intentions achieved their effects by facilitating cue identification (the if–process), alternative cues were disregarded (Study 1). On the contrary, when implementation intentions achieved their effects by the automation of the critical response (the then–process), alternative goal–directed responses were still considered (Study 2). We discuss these results with respect to the functioning of implementation intentions and the use of alternative means in planned goal pursuit.

I Can't Take My Eyes Off of It – Attention Attraction Effects of Implementation Intentions

Implementation intentions (“If situation X is encountered, I will perform behavior Y”) have been shown to improve goal attainment, relative to mere goal intentions, through automating action control. So far, they have only been examined with regard to three features of automaticity without testing the uncontrollability of implementation intention effects. In two studies on the impact of implementation intentions on visual attention, support was found for the uncontrollability of their effects. Implementation intentions attracted attention (i.e., a situational cue X disrupted attention from a focal task) even during the pursuit of different goals, more than goal intentions. In addition, the regulation of the action control through implementation intentions in response to these attention attraction effects was examined in a subsequent task. Improved performance co–occurred with attention attraction, indicating that no disengagement from the implementation intention took place. Implications for the applicati...

Effects of Alcoholic Beverage, Instigation, and Inhibition on Expectancies of Aggressive Behavior

To investigate the role of alcohol expectancy, situational factors, and personality variables in predicting postdrinking aggression, two questionnaire studies were conducted. Subjects were randomly assigned to imagine themselves and their responses in a scenario situation, which was a combination of different beverages (soda vs. alcohol), instigation, and inhibition conditions. Both studies found significant 3-way interactions of personality aggression proneness (Buss-Durkee Hostility Inventory Assault scale) by beverage condition and by situational cue condition on subjects' reported likelihood of engaging in aggressive behavior. Expected aggression was strongly associated with greater aggression proneness in the nonalcoholic condition when there was a situational cue (low inhibition in Study 1, high instigation in Study 2) invoking aggression, but not when the situational cue was absent. This relationship between aggression proneness and expected aggression, however, was attenuated in the alcoholic drink conditions in both studies. In general, it was found that the effect of alcohol on expected aggression was minor relative to the large and significant effects of aggression proneness, instigation, and inhibition.

A threatening intellectual environment: why females are susceptible to experiencing problem-solving deficits in the presence of males.

Does placing females in environments in which they have contact with males cause deficits in their problem-solving performance? Is a situational cue, such as gender composition, sufficient for creating a threatening intellectual environment for females--an environment that elicits performance-impinging stereotypes? Two studies explored these questions. Participants completed a difficult math or verbal test in 3-person groups, each of which included 2 additional people of the same sex as the participant (same-sex condition) or of the opposite sex (minority condition). Female participants in the minority condition experienced performance deficits in the math test only, whereas males performed equally well on the math test in the two conditions. Further investigation showed that females' deficits were proportional to the number of males in their group. Even females who were placed in a mixed-sex majority condition (2 females and 1 male) experienced moderate but significant deficits. Findings are discussed in relation to theories of distinctiveness, stereotype threat, and tokenism.

Situational Manipulation and Impressions Formed from Evaluation of Another Person's Personality

This study examined whether a situational cue (the number of information presenters) influences the perceivers' formation of an impression of the target person's personality. The effects of the type of impression (positive or negative) and the number of presenters (three presenters or a single presenter) on formation of impressions were investigated. Thus, 119 participants were given one of the six personality descriptions presented by three people or by a single person about the target. After reading the description, they viewed a videotape of an interaction between the target and a male interviewer. Later, participants rated the target on 36 personality-related adjectives and selected a one-word impression (prototypical impression) describing the target. Analysis indicated that participants' impressions of the target's personality were biased by the type of prior information (positive or negative) and the number of the presenters. That is, participants given the prior information from a group of presenters formed impressions about the target actor different from those given the prior information from a single presenter. Also, the asymmetrical discrepancies of the interaction between one-word prototypical impression and positiveness/negativeness of the prior information were observed. Schema-consistency of the prior information was discussed in terms of its informativeness and saliency.

Conflict Strategies Adolescents Use with Their Parents: Testing the Cognitive Communicator Characteristics Model

This study examined the determinates of adolescents' confict strategy choice during conflict with their parents. Grounded in Giles & Street's (1985) Cognitive Communicator Characteristics Model, it predicted that during minimally salient conflict with their parents, adolescents' strategy choice would be driven by the behavioural dispositions associated with their self-esteem, while in highly salient conflict, adolescents' strategy use would be induced by parental strategy use, a situational cue. Results did not support the idea that behavioural dispositions associated with self-esteem would emerge in minimally salient conflict; however, adolescents' strategy choice was affected by parental strategy choice in highly salient conflict. Adolescents tend to reciprocate cooperative strategies in all conflict conditions but in highly salient conflict they also reciprocate competitive conflict strategies.

Situational cue and strategy influence on speechreading.

The influence of situational cues and reasoning strategies on speechreading was studied in normal-hearing and minimally hearing-impaired adults. Everyday Speech Sentences (Davis & Silverman, 1968) produced by a female talker were videotaped without sound in the context of a visual background scene. A non-verbal acoustic signal was matched to each sentence and dubbed onto the recording. Thus, each test item consisted of an inaudible sentence presented with an optical and acoustic situational cue. The experimental task was structured so that subjects speechread sentences using deductive or inductive reasoning strategies. Results demonstrated greater success in speechreading when sentences were matched with related situational cues than when unrelated cues were provided. This difference was noted only when inductive reasoning was used. The findings suggest that situational cues are most useful to the speechreader when he can be assured that a strong relationship exists between the spoken message and the talker's situational background.

Repression--descriptive behavior: response versus situational cue variables.

Repression--descriptive behavior: response versus situational cue variables.