Related Experiment Video
Updated: Feb 23, 2026

Task Interruption and Resumption Paradigm for Testing the Activation and Pursuit of an Abstract Thinking Goal
Published on: April 18, 2017
Cultivating Effective Social Support Through Abstraction: Reframing Social Support Promotes Goal-Pursuit
11 University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA.
Abstract:
Social support, in theory, should promote individual goal-pursuit. However, a growing number of studies shows that receiving support can undermine goal-pursuit. Addressing this paradox, we investigated a novel idea of the effects of how people think about their social support on their goal-pursuit. Four experiments showed that participants who were led to think abstractly (vs. concretely) about their social support showed higher intent to pursue their goal (Studies 1-3) and worked harder toward their goal (Study 4). The benefits of abstracting one's social support occurred over a variety of personal goals, support types, and support-providers, indicating the generalizability and robustness of our findings. These results demonstrate that how people think about their social support influences goal-pursuit and suggest ways in which support-recipients can maximize their social support.
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