Psychological threat and extrinsic goal striving

摘要

Although people generally endorse intrinsicgoals for growth, intimacy, and community more thanextrinsic goals for money, appearance, and popularity,people sometimes over-emphasize extrinsic goals, to thepotential detriment of their well-being. When and why doesthis occur? Results from three experimental studies showthat psychological threat increases the priority that peoplegive to extrinsic compared to intrinsic goals. This wasfound in the case of existential threat (Study 1), economicthreat (Studies 2), and interpersonal threat (Study 3). Dis-cussion focuses on the possible reasons why threat breedsextrinsic orientations.