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What we want to do versus what we think we should do: an empirical investigation of intrapersonal conflict
Author(s) -
O'Connor Kathleen M.,
De Dreu Carsten K. W.,
Schroth Holly,
Barry Bruce,
Lituchy Terri R.,
Bazerman Max H.
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
journal of behavioral decision making
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.136
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1099-0771
pISSN - 0894-3257
DOI - 10.1002/bdm.426
Subject(s) - intrapersonal communication , perspective (graphical) , psychology , social psychology , credit card , debt , self fulfilling prophecy , empirical research , interpersonal communication , epistemology , economics , computer science , philosophy , finance , artificial intelligence , payment
People often feel torn between what they want to do and what they believe they should do. As a result, they experience intrapersonal conflict . For example, people know that they should avoid credit card debt, but they want to splurge on just one more purchase. Following Loewenstein's (1996) temporal perspective to understanding internal conflict and inconsistency, we offer three studies that empirically demonstrate (1) a distinction between the want self and the should self, (2) that behavior is more closely linked to the want self, (3) that the want self is the self that is temporally inconsistent, and (4) that adopting a want versus should perspective can have a significant impact on actual behavior. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.