In the Eye of the Beholder

The science of social perception.

by Jason Plaks, Ph.D.

Reaching Your Goals...Vicariously

By Jason Plaks, Ph.D. on June 2, 2011 in In the Eye of the Beholder

The researchers wondered whether merely watching someone successfully complete a goal would lead people to be less motivated when they subsequently performed the same task. Read More

There seem to be several

Submitted by Anonymous on June 2, 2011 - 1:53pm.

There seem to be several possible explanations, and I'm not sure it's so much a cognitive thing.

My hunch is that one or both of the following are at work: (1) seeing someone accomplish a task when the reward is not immediately evident could remove some of the "carrot" effect; (2) we may be conditioned to piggy-back on the success of others, such as might be expected in a hunting group when one person gets a kill and the others share the spoils.

The latter explanation is more evolutionary psych than I care to acknowledge generally. But it's consistent with the idea that humans are wired to be social beings and to share in spoils--at least in a family unit.

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Unclear conclusion

Submitted by Lynn on June 3, 2011 - 9:40am.

Perhaps the participants who watched the hands that didn't manage to solve the problem were spurred to rise to the challenge. Sort of a "I can do better than that" feeling that motivates them. With that said, this does not invalidate the original hypothesis, and the group who saw the hands win may still have been demotivated, but it's not a clear conclusion. It may be better to have a better control group - another set of participants who did not see anything from the corner of their eyes. Or a set who saw something neutral, like a nature scene, or just the set of words with no hands involved.