TY - JOUR
T1 - Priming pride promotes delay of gratification
AU - Shimoni, Einav
AU - Berger, Andrea
AU - Eyal, Tal
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was supported by Israel Science Foundation Grant #696-15 awarded to T. Eyal.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.
PY - 2019/10/1
Y1 - 2019/10/1
N2 - Distinct positive emotions signal adherence to specific goals: pride signals the successful pursuit of long-term goals, while joy signals the successful pursuit of immediate desires. We propose that when children are primed with a positive emotion, without actually feeling it, they are likely to pursue the goal that evokes it. Because delaying gratification involves resisting an immediate desire for the sake of a long-term goal, we predicted that, when primed with pride, children would delay gratification more often than when primed with joy. We tested 8-year-olds’ ability to delay gratification, using a delay-discounting task. We primed pride/joy by having children either imagine a future emotional event (Experiment 1) or listen to another child’s emotional experience (Experiment 2). As predicted, pride-primed children showed lower delay discounting than children who were primed with joy and the control condition, demonstrating enhanced self-regulation. These results suggest that, from a young age, simply thinking about an emotion without actually experiencing it may cue pursuit of associated goals.
AB - Distinct positive emotions signal adherence to specific goals: pride signals the successful pursuit of long-term goals, while joy signals the successful pursuit of immediate desires. We propose that when children are primed with a positive emotion, without actually feeling it, they are likely to pursue the goal that evokes it. Because delaying gratification involves resisting an immediate desire for the sake of a long-term goal, we predicted that, when primed with pride, children would delay gratification more often than when primed with joy. We tested 8-year-olds’ ability to delay gratification, using a delay-discounting task. We primed pride/joy by having children either imagine a future emotional event (Experiment 1) or listen to another child’s emotional experience (Experiment 2). As predicted, pride-primed children showed lower delay discounting than children who were primed with joy and the control condition, demonstrating enhanced self-regulation. These results suggest that, from a young age, simply thinking about an emotion without actually experiencing it may cue pursuit of associated goals.
KW - Delay of gratification
KW - Joy
KW - Positive emotion
KW - Pride
KW - Self-regulation
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85068930397&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s11031-019-09778-6
DO - 10.1007/s11031-019-09778-6
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85068930397
SN - 0146-7239
VL - 43
SP - 786
EP - 802
JO - Motivation and Emotion
JF - Motivation and Emotion
IS - 5
ER -