Behavioral Consistency and Inconsistency in the Resolution of Goal Conflict

Journal of Consumer Research · 2009 · Volume 35 · Issue 6

Abstract

During the course of a day, consumers experience choices that involve goal conflict (e.g., eat tasty vs. healthy food, recreate vs. work, relax vs. act). In some cases, an initial behavior is followed by a similar behavior. In other cases, an initial behavior is followed by an opposing behavior. We posit that a passive guidance system can nonconsciously guide behavior when there is goal conflict and, hence, determine whether a sequence of behaviors will be consistent or inconsistent. The passive guidance system is sensitive to whether a current behavior sustains goal activation and encourages similar future behaviors or results in goal achievement and encourages dissimilar future behaviors. Eight experiments provide evidence for this passive guidance system.

Keywords

Motivation/Desires/Goals, Cognitive Structure, Experimental Design and Analysis (ANOVA), Self-Control

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