Action Dominance: The Performance Effects Of Multiple Action Demands And The Benefits Of An Inaction Focus

Keywords

action goals; focus; goals; inaction; motivation; performance

Abstract

Four experiments uncovered an action dominance error by which people’s natural focus on actions hinders appropriate responses to social and nonsocial stimuli. This surprising error comprises higher rates of both omission (misses) and commission (false alarms) when, in responding to action and inaction demands, people have higher numbers of action targets. The action dominance error was verified over four experiments using an analog that required responses to words and to target individuals. Experiments 1 and 2 tested our hypotheses and distinguished the action error effect from the effects of practicing action or inaction responses. Experiment 3 linked the error to the greater cognitive load imposed by the higher proportion of action over inaction targets. Furthermore, Experiment 4 demonstrated that (a) there is a default tendency to pay more attention to action (vs. inaction) targets and (b) shifting focus to inaction targets reduces the action dominance error.

Publication Date

7-1-2018

Publication Title

Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

Volume

44

Issue

7

Number of Pages

996-1007

Document Type

Article

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167218756031

Socpus ID

85044028624 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/85044028624

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