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Unconscious Goal Pursuit in Real‐Life Organizations: Commentary on Chen, Latham, Piccolo, and Itzchakov (2020)
Author(s) -
Bargh John A.
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
applied psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.497
H-Index - 88
eISSN - 1464-0597
pISSN - 0269-994X
DOI - 10.1111/apps.12259
Subject(s) - unconscious mind , chen , psychology , similarity (geometry) , goal pursuit , freudian slip , social psychology , cognitive psychology , psychoanalysis , epistemology , computer science , artificial intelligence , philosophy , paleontology , biology , image (mathematics)
The research reviewed in Chen et al.’s (this issue) meta‐analysis shows that a person’s goal pursuits and motivational states can be induced by external means, or ‘primes’, and then operate in much the same way as if the person made a conscious intention to pursue that goal. Previous demonstrations of this phenomena in psychology laboratories are now extended to real life organizations and settings and shown to produce even stronger effects than before. The research reviewed also further demonstrates the close similarity between unconscious and conscious goal operation, belying the Freudian idea of a separate unconscious mind. Implications for the ethicality of influencing employees without their awareness are discussed.