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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 12, 2026

Studying Food Reward and Motivation in Humans
12:09

Studying Food Reward and Motivation in Humans

Published on: March 19, 2014

Vicarious goal satiation.

Kathleen C McCulloch1, Gráinne M Fitzsimons, Sook Ning Chua

  • 1Idaho State University, Department of Psychology, 921 S. 8th, Stop 8112, Pocatello, ID, 83209, USA.

Journal of Experimental Social Psychology
|April 23, 2013
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Witnessing others complete goals can deactivate your own goal pursuit, a phenomenon called vicarious goal satiation. This effect is stronger when the observed goal pursuit shows high commitment.

Keywords:
Goal contagionNonconscious goal pursuitSelf-other representationsSelf-regulation

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Area of Science:

  • Social Psychology
  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Behavioral Science

Background:

  • Self-regulation involves deactivating satiated goals to pursue new ones.
  • Vicarious goal satiation is a novel phenomenon where observing another's goal completion leads to personal goal satiation.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To provide evidence for vicarious goal satiation.
  • To investigate the role of observed goal commitment in vicarious goal satiation.

Main Methods:

  • Two experiments were conducted.
  • Participants observed goal pursuit (completed vs. not completed) and their subsequent striving on a similar task was measured.
  • Goal commitment strength was manipulated in the second experiment.

Main Results:

  • Observing a completed goal reduced observer's striving compared to an uncompleted goal.
  • Stronger observed goal commitment decreased accessibility of goal-related words, but only when the goal was completed.

Conclusions:

  • Vicarious goal satiation is a robust phenomenon.
  • Observed goal commitment moderates vicarious goal satiation, impacting goal pursuit.
  • Findings have implications for understanding goal pursuit in social contexts.