Effects of a Story Character’s Goal Achievement

Abstract

One set of media effect theories argues that people are more likely to model behaviors that lead to a rewarding outcome (goal-achieved) than those that lead to an unrewarding outcome (goal-failed); however, recent studies find that observing another person’s goal achievement deactivates the goal. In Experiment 1, a story in which a character’s diet goal is in progress activated participants’ diet goals more than a story in which the character’s goal is achieved. In Experiment 2, when a story character achieved a diet goal, participants’ perceived similarity with the character was related to a greater intention to model the character’s diet-related behaviors; that relationship was not significant when the character failed. When a story character continued to pursue a diet goal, however, participants’ goals were more activated than when the character discontinued to pursue the goal.