Henk Aarts
Biographic Data
| ID | 117407 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Henk Aarts |
| GIVEN NAMES | Henk |
| FAMILY NAME | Aarts |
| SIGNATURE | AARTS H |
| AFFILIATIONS | Utrecht University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-8676-1692 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 87 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 886 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 87 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1994 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 19 |
The impact of restricting ‘what’, ‘when’ and ‘how’ decisions on experienced agency: A functional analysis of human autonomy in institutional context
Personal autonomy is increasingly challenged by institutional rules and societal demands. This research examines how institutional restrictions on what people do, when they do it, and how they do it influence their experience of agency. Across two experimental studies, participants indicated their experienced agency in everyday scenarios where institutions determined one or more of these three components. The results indicate that experienced age…
How the environment evokes actions that lead to different goals: The role of object multi-functionality in pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer
Research shows that stimuli in the environment can trigger behavior via the activation of goal representations. This process can be tested in the Pavlovian-to-Instrumental Transfer (PIT) paradigm, where stimuli can only affect behavior through the activation of the representation of its desired outcome (i.e., the PIT effect). Previous research has demonstrated that the PIT effect is stronger when the goal is more desirable. While this research on…
Choice effects on temporal binding of action and outcomes: Examining the role of outcome focus and measures of time interval estimation
The ability to make one's own choices is vital to the experience of intentional behavior. Such agency experiences are reflected in the perceptual compression of time between actions and resulting outcomes. Whereas some studies show that choice limitations weaken temporal binding, other studies do not find such an effect. Reviewing the literature, we noted two potential factors that may moderate choice limitation effects on temporal binding: (a) t…
A functional analysis of personal autonomy: How restricting ‘what’, ‘when’ and ‘how’ affects experienced agency and goal motivation
Personal autonomy is central to people's experiences of agency and abilities to actively take part in society. To address the challenges of supporting autonomy, we propose a functional model of autonomy, according to which the experience of agency is a function of the opportunity to determine what to do, when to act and how to act in goal‐pursuit. We tested the model in three experiments where the three goal‐pursuit components could be constraine…
Spatiotemporal variations of public opinion on social distancing in the Netherlands: Comparison of Twitter and longitudinal survey data
Background: Social distancing has been implemented by many countries to curb the COVID-19 pandemic. Understanding public support for this policy calls for effective and efficient methods of monitoring public opinion on social distancing. Twitter analysis has been suggested as a cheaper and faster-responding alternative to traditional survey methods. The current empirical evidence is mixed in terms of the correspondence between the two methods. Ob…
Moving targets in space: Movement distance as a predictor for experiences of movement agency
Previous research indicates that the experience of agency over one's actions and movements is influenced by movement predictability as well as movement distance (Hon, Seow, & Pereira, 2018). Addressing previous limitations, we present a compelling test of the relation between movement distance and movement agency. Participants in two studies moved targets predictably or unpredictably, and for short, medium, or long distances. Following prior rese…
Habit formation of preventive behaviours during the Covid-19 pandemic: A longitudinal study of physical distancing and hand washing
People's adaptations to physical-distancing and hand washing measures involve both intentional and habitual processes. For public health management, our findings highlight the importance of using contextual cues to promote habit formation, especially for maintaining physical-distancing practices. For habit theories, our study provides a unique dataset that covers multiple health behaviours in a critical real-world setting
Intentional action and limitation of personal autonomy. Do restrictions of action selection decrease the sense of agency
The experience of being an intentional agent is a key component of personal autonomy. Here, we tested how undermining intentional action affects the sense of agency as indexed by intentional binding. In three experiments using the Libet clock paradigm, participants judged the onset of their action (key presses) and resulting effect (auditory stimuli) under conditions of no, partial, or full autonomy over selecting and timing their actions. In all…
Keep your distance for me”: A field experiment on empathy prompts to promote distancing during the Covid ‐19 pandemic
The outbreak of COVID-19 has turned out to be a major challenge to societies all over the globe. Curbing the pandemic requires rapid and extensive behavioural change to limit social interaction, including physical distancing. In this study, we tested the notion that inducing empathy for people vulnerable to the virus may result in actual distancing behaviour beyond the mere motivation to do so. In a large field experiment with a sequential case-c…
Does Goal Pursuit Require Conscious Awareness?
Human behavior is directed at goals. Although goal pursuit is traditionally regarded as an endeavor that requires conscious awareness, experimental evidence in psychology suggests that human goal pursuit can originate and unfold in the unconscious. Accordingly, goal-directed behavior could be motivated outside conscious awareness in the current situation or environment. This chapter reviews past and current research examining the evidence for suc…
Intentionality and temporal binding: Do causality beliefs increase the perceived temporal attraction between events
Intentional motor actions and their effects are bound together in temporal perception, resulting in the so-called intentional binding effect. In the current study, we address an alternative explanatory mechanism for the emergence of temporal binding by excluding the role of motor action. Employing a sensory-based Libet clock paradigm, we examined temporal perception of two different auditory stimuli, and tested the influence of beliefs about the …
An examination of the sequential trial effect on experiences of agency in the Simon task
The decentering component of mindfulness reduces appetitive responses to unhealthy foods
Alcohol representations are socially situated: An investigation of beverage representations by using a property generation task
Uncovering effects of self-control and stimulus-driven action selection on the sense of agency
The sense of agency refers to feelings of causing one's own action and resulting effect. Previous research indicates that voluntary action selection is an important factor in shaping the sense of agency. Whereas the volitional nature of the sense of agency is well documented, the present study examined whether agency is modulated when action selection shifts from self-control to a more automatic stimulus-driven process. Seventy-two participants p…
Attentional control and inferences of agency: Working memory load differentially modulates goal-based and prime-based agency experiences
Put your plan into action: The influence of action plans on agency and responsibility
While action plans and intentions have been considered to be important factors contributing to the personal sense of causation known as agency, the present research is the first to empirically investigate how action plans influence agency. Participants in multiple studies were required to plan or not to plan ahead their actions. Results consistently show that on trials in which participants were required to plan their actions, participants experi…
Targeting impulsive processes of eating behavior via the internet. Effects on body weight
Why most dieters fail but some succeed: A goal conflict model of eating behavior.
Theories of eating regulation often attribute overweight to a malfunction of homeostatic regulation of body weight. With the goal conflict model of eating, we present a new perspective that attributes the difficulty of chronic dieters (i.e., restrained eaters) in regulating their food intake to a conflict between 2 incompatible goals-namely, eating enjoyment and weight control. This model explains the findings of previous research and provides no…
The Rise and Fall of Self-Control: Temptation-Elicited Goal Activation and Effortful Goal-Directed Behavior
Environmental cues of temptation generally frustrate people’s long-term goal attainment. However, recent research suggests that temptation cues promote, rather than hamper long-term goal congruent effects in successful self-regulators. While previous work has started to shed light on the cognitive features of this rise and fall of self-control, the present research aims to significantly advance this study by exploring important implications for a…
Successful restrained eating and trait impulsiveness
Anger as a Hidden Motivator: Associating Attainable Products With Anger Turns Them Into Rewards
The authors examined whether creating associations between products and anger, a negative but also approach-related emotion, motivates people to get or invest in these products when these products are considered attainable. Experiment 1 demonstrated that participants spontaneously spent more physical effort to get anger-related (compared to neutral) products they could attain as gifts. Experiment 2 showed that participants paid more money for ang…
When moving without volition: Implied self-causation enhances binding strength between involuntary actions and effects
Perceiving an exclusive cause of affect prevents misattribution
Memory and attention for social threat: Anxious hypercoding-avoidance and submissive gaze aversion
Rivalry for dominance is a recurrent challenge in human social interaction. During these social dominance interactions, some people rapidly break eye contact, whereas others merely try to avoid such eye-to-eye confrontations. The first is an example of submissive gaze aversion, whereas the second reflects anxious gaze avoidance. We tested these distinct forms of gaze behavior within a social-memory setting and show that anxious individuals vigila…
Habits as knowledge structures: Automaticity in goal-directed behavior
This study tested the idea of habits as a form of goal-directed automatic behavior. Expanding on the idea that habits are mentally represented as associations between goals and actions, it was proposed that goals are capable of activating the habitual action. More specific, when habits are established (e.g., frequent cycling to the university), the very activation of the goal to act (e.g., having to attend lectures at the university) automaticall…
Predicting Behavior From Actions in the Past: Repeated Decision Making or a Matter of Habit
This paper summarizes research on determinants of repeated behaviors, and the decision processes underlying them. The present research focuses on travel mode choices as an example of such behaviors. It is proposed that when behavior is performed repeatedly and becomes habitual, it is guided by automated cognitive processes, rather than being preceded by elaborate decision processes (i.e., a decision based on attitudes and intentions). First, curr…
Goal Contagion: Perceiving Is for Pursuing
Six studies examined the goal contagion hypothesis, which claims that individuals may automatically adopt and pursue a goal that is implied by another person's behavior. Participants were briefly exposed to behavioral information implying a specific goal and were then given the opportunity to act on the goal in a different way and context. Studies 1-3 established the goal contagion phenomenon by showing that the behavioral consequences of goal co…
Why dieters fail: Testing the goal conflict model of eating
The silence of the library: Environment, situational norm, and social behavior
On the basis of the idea that situational norms are mentally represented as associations between environments and normative behavior, it was proposed that an environment can automatically direct normative behavior. More specifically, when situational norms are well-established (e.g., when entering the library, one should be silent), an environment is capable of automatically activating mental representations of normative behavior and the behavior…
Positive Affect as Implicit Motivator: On the Nonconscious Operation of Behavioral Goals
Recent research has revealed that nonconscious activation of desired behavioral states--or behavioral goals--promotes motivational activity to accomplish these states. Six studies demonstrate that this nonconscious operation of behavioral goals emerges if mental representations of specific behavioral states are associated with positive affect. In an evaluative-conditioning paradigm, unobtrusive linking of behavioral states to positive, as compare…
Pleasure in the mind: Restrained eating and spontaneous hedonic thoughts about food
Targeting impulsive processes of eating behavior via the internet. Effects on body weight
On the Relation between Associative Strength and Automatic Behavior
The allure of forbidden food: On the role of attention in self-regulation
Through the eyes of dieters: Biased size perception of food following tempting food primes
Breaking and creating habits on the working floor: A field-experiment on the power of implementation intentions
Automatic goal inferences
On the psychology of drinking: Being thirsty and perceptually ready
The present research is concerned with cognitive effects of habitually regulated primary motives. Specifically, two experiments tested the idea that feelings of thirst enhance the cognitive accessibility of, or readiness to perceive, action-relevant stimuli. In a task allegedly designed to assess mouth-detection skills, some participants were made to feel thirsty, whereas others were not. Results showed that participants who were made thirsty res…
The nonconscious cessation of goal pursuit: When goals and negative affect are coactivated
Extending on the recent investigation into the implicit affective processes underlying motivation and decision making, 5 studies examined the role of negative affect in moderating goal priming effects. Specifically, experimental effects on measures that typify motivational qualities of goal systems, such as keeping a goal at a heightened level of mental accessibility and exerting effort to work for a goal and experiencing desire to attain the goa…
Implementation intentions as goal primes: Boosting self‐control in tempting environments
People often forget their long‐term strivings because their environment confronts them with attractive temptations. Previous research suggests that self‐control failures can be prevented by reminding people of their higher‐order goal. Therefore, we hypothesized that using implementation intentions as a tool to directly re‐activate people's higher‐order goal in tempting situations would effectively enhance self‐control. We tested this in the domai…
Effects of subliminal priming of self and God on self-attribution of authorship for events
Behavioral cues to others’ motivation and goal pursuits: The perception of effort facilitates goal inference and contagion
In search of the nonconscious sources of goal pursuit: Accessibility and positive affective valence of the goal state
Successful restrained eating and trait impulsiveness
The influence of social groups on goal contagion
Who likes it more? Restrained eaters’ implicit attitudes towards food
The role of automaticity in determining the inclination to forgive close others
Unconscious goal activation and the hijacking of the executive function
Building on research on unconscious human goal pursuit and the dynamic nature of our mental and physical world, this study examined the idea that an unconsciously activated goal hijacks executive control for its own attainment. This "hijacking" of the executive function by an unconscious goal should be evidenced by impaired performance on an unrelated task relying on executive control. The results of 6 experiments show that subliminal activation …
Alcohol representations are socially situated: An investigation of beverage representations by using a property generation task
Attitude Versus General Habit: Antecedents of Travel Mode Choice 1
A model of travel mode choice is tested by means of a survey among 199 inhabitants of a village. Car choice behavior for a particular journey is predicted from the attitude toward choosing the car and the attitude toward choosing an alternative mode (i.e., train), on the one hand, and from general car habit, on the other hand. Unlike traditional measures of habit, a script‐based measure was used. General habit was measured by travel mode choices …
Physical exercise habit: On the conceptualization and formation of habitual health behaviours
An observation one can make when reviewing the literature on physical activity is that health-enhancing exercise habits tend to wear off as soon as individuals enter adolescence. Therefore, exercise habits should be promoted and preserved early in life. This article focuses on the formation of physical exercise habits. First, the literature on motivational determinants of habitual exercise and related behaviours is discussed, and the concept of h…
Habit, information acquisition, and the process of making travel mode choices
Three studies examined the role of habit on information acquisition concerning travel mode choices. On the basis of Triandis' (1980) model of attitude–behaviour relations it was expected that habit strength attenuates the elaborateness of choice processes. The studies focused on different phases in the choice process, namely the appreciation of situational cues and appreciation of choice option information. In line with expectations, it was found…
Habit versus planned behaviour: A field experiment
A field experiment investigated the prediction and change in repeated behaviour in the domain of travel mode choices. Car use during seven days was predicted from habit strength (measured by self‐reported frequency of past behaviour, as well as by a more covert measure based on personal scripts incorporating the behaviour), and antecedents of behaviour as conceptualized in the theory of planned behaviour (attitude, subjective norm, perceived beha…
Predicting Behavior From Actions in the Past: Repeated Decision Making or a Matter of Habit
This paper summarizes research on determinants of repeated behaviors, and the decision processes underlying them. The present research focuses on travel mode choices as an example of such behaviors. It is proposed that when behavior is performed repeatedly and becomes habitual, it is guided by automated cognitive processes, rather than being preceded by elaborate decision processes (i.e., a decision based on attitudes and intentions). First, curr…
Habit, Attitude, and Planned Behaviour: Is Habit an Empty Construct or an Interesting Case of Goal-directed Automaticity
Habit is often treated as a construct of marginal interest in the literature on attitude–behaviour relations. We argue that this is undeserved, particularly given the current interest in principles of automaticity in social psychology. Basic features of habits, such as goal-directed automaticity, their dependency on situational constancy, and functionality, as well as the measurement of habit strength, are discussed. Research is reviewed that con…
To plan or not to plan? Goal achievement or interrupting the performance of mundane behaviors
The present experiment investigated cognitive and behavioral effects of planning (i.e. forming implementation intentions) on goal pursuit during the performance of mundane behaviors. Participants received the goal to collect a coupon halfway the hall from the lab to the cafeteria. Later, they were also given the task to go from the lab to the cafeteria. Thus participants had to attain a new goal by interrupting a mundane behavior. Some participan…
To plan or not to plan? Goal achievement or interrupting the performance of mundane behaviors
The present experiment investigated cognitive and behavioral effects of planning (i.e. forming implementation intentions) on goal pursuit during the performance of mundane behaviors. Participants received the goal to collect a coupon halfway the hall from the lab to the cafeteria. Later, they were also given the task to go from the lab to the cafeteria. Thus participants had to attain a new goal by interrupting a mundane behavior. Some participan…
On the Relation between Associative Strength and Automatic Behavior
Habits as knowledge structures: Automaticity in goal-directed behavior
This study tested the idea of habits as a form of goal-directed automatic behavior. Expanding on the idea that habits are mentally represented as associations between goals and actions, it was proposed that goals are capable of activating the habitual action. More specific, when habits are established (e.g., frequent cycling to the university), the very activation of the goal to act (e.g., having to attend lectures at the university) automaticall…
On the psychology of drinking: Being thirsty and perceptually ready
The present research is concerned with cognitive effects of habitually regulated primary motives. Specifically, two experiments tested the idea that feelings of thirst enhance the cognitive accessibility of, or readiness to perceive, action-relevant stimuli. In a task allegedly designed to assess mouth-detection skills, some participants were made to feel thirsty, whereas others were not. Results showed that participants who were made thirsty res…
What do you think is ‘fair’? Effects of ingroup norms and outcome control on fairness judgments
Two studies are reported that examine whether fairness judgments in dyadic exchange situations are influenced by descriptive ingroup norms or the interdependence structure of the exchange situation. In both studies, these factors were varied within a minimal group categorization paradigm. Results showed that ingroup norms affected fairness judgments when participants interacted with another group member and interaction outcomes could be affected …
On Wildebeests and Humans: The Preferential Detection of Negative Stimuli
On the basis of a functional perspective, we hypothesized that negative stimuli are detected faster than positive stimuli. In Experiment 1, participants were subliminally presented with positive and negative words or with no words at all. After each presentation, participants were asked whether they had seen a word. They detected negative words more accurately than positive words. In Experiment 2, participants were subliminally presented with neg…
The silence of the library: Environment, situational norm, and social behavior
On the basis of the idea that situational norms are mentally represented as associations between environments and normative behavior, it was proposed that an environment can automatically direct normative behavior. More specifically, when situational norms are well-established (e.g., when entering the library, one should be silent), an environment is capable of automatically activating mental representations of normative behavior and the behavior…
Automatic goal inferences
Goal Contagion: Perceiving Is for Pursuing
Six studies examined the goal contagion hypothesis, which claims that individuals may automatically adopt and pursue a goal that is implied by another person's behavior. Participants were briefly exposed to behavioral information implying a specific goal and were then given the opportunity to act on the goal in a different way and context. Studies 1-3 established the goal contagion phenomenon by showing that the behavioral consequences of goal co…
On the inference of personal authorship: Enhancing experienced agency by priming effect information
Beyond priming effects: The role of positive affect and discrepancies in implicit processes of motivation and goal pursuit
Recent research demonstrates that goal pursuit can be instigated without conscious interventions when the mental accessibility of goal representations is enhanced by environmental cues. However, the mechanisms producing this non-conscious, motivational, goal-directed activity are not clearly addressed in the literature. In this chapter we present a framework within which the non-conscious activation of goal-directed behaviour can be understood. T…
Positive Affect as Implicit Motivator: On the Nonconscious Operation of Behavioral Goals
Recent research has revealed that nonconscious activation of desired behavioral states--or behavioral goals--promotes motivational activity to accomplish these states. Six studies demonstrate that this nonconscious operation of behavioral goals emerges if mental representations of specific behavioral states are associated with positive affect. In an evaluative-conditioning paradigm, unobtrusive linking of behavioral states to positive, as compare…
In search of the nonconscious sources of goal pursuit: Accessibility and positive affective valence of the goal state
Breaking and creating habits on the working floor: A field-experiment on the power of implementation intentions
Unconscious authorship ascription: The effects of success and effect-specific information priming on experienced authorship
Behavioral cues to others’ motivation and goal pursuits: The perception of effort facilitates goal inference and contagion
Pleasure in the mind: Restrained eating and spontaneous hedonic thoughts about food
The role of automaticity in determining the inclination to forgive close others
Psychology (84 works) · Social Psychology (76 works) · Cognitive psychology (61 works) · Behavioral Health and Interventions (48 works) · Social and Intergroup Psychology (33 works) · Social Psychology (28 works) · Developmental psychology (27 works) · Cognition (26 works) · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment (24 works) · Computer Science (21 works)