| Previous literature proposes competing hypotheses for the consequences of self-uncertainty for goal pursuit--some argue that self-uncertainty hinders effective goal pursuit, while others arguing that self-uncertainty motivates goal pursuit. In contrast, we propose that self-uncertainty decreases the influence of stored self-knowledge, and increases the likelihood of assimilating to goal primes. This will result in diminished goal striving when cues in the environment are inconsistent with goal pursuit, but enhanced goal striving when cues are consistent with goal pursuit. We test this model in five studies. Studies 1 and 2 explored self-uncertainty's impact on participants' academic goal pursuit following social primes, which represent a tempting, alternative goal. Study 3 replicated Studies 1 and 2 using a different set of goals--women's potentially conflicting desires to be intelligent and physically attractive. Study 4 attempted to find support for our proposed mechanism using a Lexical Decision Task. And Study 5 looked at self-uncertainty's influence in the context of goal-consistent and goal-inconsistent cues. As expected, self-certain participants performed marginally better on goal-related tasks following temptation primes (Studies 1-4) and goal-inconsistent primes (Study 5). Self-uncertain participants performed worse following temptation primes, but as well or better than self-certain participants in the absence of primes (Studies 1-4) or when primes were consistent with goal pursuit (Study 5). The implications of these data for self-regulation, well-being, and valuation of self-certainty are discussed. |
