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doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2004.04.001 
Copyright © 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Emotional transfer in goal systems*1
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Ayelet Fishbach
, 
, a, James Y. Shahb and Arie W. Kruglanskic
Received 13 February 2003;
Abstract
Five experimental studies explored the phenomenon of affective transfer in goal systems. We find that affect associated with goal attainment may be transferred to means cognitively associated with such goal-events, and that factors affecting the dimensions of transfer include the magnitude of affect invested in the goal, the quality of invested affect and the strength of association between a given means and the goal-event. Accordingly, the transfer mechanism was shown to impact the magnitude of affect experienced in regard to the means in question, as well as its kind (involving, e.g., promotion-type affect or prevention-type affect), and was shown to influence the interpersonal feelings toward others perceived as helpful to the attainment of various goals.
Article Outline
- • Introduction
- • Goal systems theory: Affective transfer
- • Strength of goal-means association
- • Transfer of properties
- • Quantitative and qualitative aspects
- • Interpersonal consequences
- • Semantic versus dynamic properties
- • The present research
- • Study 1: Increased means number decreases the transfer of positive affect
- • Study 2: Means-related affect as a combined function of goal–activity association and goal-related affect
- • Method
- • Participants
- • Procedure
- • Goal–activity association
- • Controlling for the general accessibility of target means.
- • Results and discussion
- • Study 3: Affective transfer from separate goals to a singular means: Experiencing the same activity differently
- • Study 4: Dynamic versus semantic associations
- • Study 5: The transfer of affective qualities to social means
- • General discussion
- • Alternative interpretations
- • Association, transfer, and the psychology of motivation
- • Affective transfer and intrinsic motivation
- • Conclusions
- • References
*1 This research was supported the William S. Fishman Faculty Research Fund at the Graduate School of Business, the University of Chicago, to the first author, NIMH grant MH63280-02 to the second author, and by NSF Grant 0314291/0313483 to the third author.
