Edited by: Malia Mason, Columbia University (NYC), USA
Reviewed by: Raymond A. Mar, York University, Canada; Thomas L. Webb, University of Sheffield, UK
*Correspondence: Gabriele Oettingen, Psychology Department, New York University, 6 Washington Place, New York, NY 10003, USA e-mail:
This article was submitted to Perception Science, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology.
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
When people engage in mind wandering they drift away from a task toward their inner thoughts and feelings. These thoughts often circle around people's personal futures. One assumed function of mind wandering is that it aids problem solving and planning for the future. We will discuss different forms of mind wandering and their effects on problem solving and behavior change. While solely fantasizing about a desired future leads to poor problem solving and little behavior change, mind wandering in the form of mental contrasting leads to skilled problem solving and substantial behavior change. In mental contrasting, people first envision the desired future and then imagine the obstacles that need to be surmounted to reach said future. Mental contrasting instigates behavior change by modulating the strength of associations between future and reality and between reality and instrumental action. Intervention research shows that mental contrasting can be taught as a cost- and time-effective self-regulation strategy of behavior change. The findings have implications for research on mind wandering, problem solving, and on creating effective interventions of behavior change.
Mind wandering (Singer,
The self-help literature clearly advises us to think positively in order to become a happy and successful person. Studies on fantasies about the future (i.e., free thoughts and images; Oettingen and Mayer,
Positive fantasies about a wished for future allows a person to enjoy future success already in the here and now, and thus it appears that no effort for fulfilling the wished for future is needed. Indeed, in four studies, inducing positive fantasies led to lower energization and lower effort than questioning fantasies, negative fantasies, or factual thoughts (H. B. Kappes and Oettingen,
Mental contrasting (Oettingen,
Fantasy Realization Theory (Oettingen,
An ample amount of studies show the different effects of mental contrasting vs. indulging and dwelling on behavior change. For example, college students named their most important interpersonal concern and indicated their expectations of resolving the concern. They were then randomly assigned to one of three conditions: mental contrasting, indulging, or dwelling. When measuring their feelings of energization right after the experiment, and then 2 weeks later, participants with high expectations increased in energization and acted immediately, those with low expectations decreased in energization and delayed their action. Students in the indulging and dwelling conditions did not change, neither in their energization nor in their immediacy of action, regardless of whether their expectations were high or low (Oettingen et al.,
Studies (H. B. Kappes et al.,
Contextual factors influence the degree to which people spontaneously mental contrast. Specifically, in six studies H. B. Kappes et al. (
When measuring spontaneous mental contrasting, we asked participants to mentally elaborate on their wishes and concerns, but did not catch them while mind wandering. However, as the frequency of mind wandering is associated with being unhappy (e.g., Kane et al.,
To explain the effects of mental contrasting on behavior change, research has identified three sets of mechanisms: cognitive changes, motivational changes, and people's response to set-backs. Regarding cognitive mechanisms, mental contrasting changes (a) the strength of the association between future and reality (b) the strength of the association between reality and the actions to overcome the reality and (c) the meaning of reality. Importantly, all these changes mediated the effects of mental contrasting on behavior change. Firstly, mental contrasting (vs. relevant control conditions) strengthens the association between future and reality when expectations are high, and weakens it, when expectations are low (Oettingen,
The motivational mechanism bridging the effects of mental contrasting and behavior change is energization (measured by subjective feelings as well as by objective measures like systolic blood pressure): When expectations are high, people feel more energized and systolic blood pressure increases, when they are low, people feel less energized and blood pressure decreases. Other modes of thought produce no change. Importantly, changes in energization mediate the effects of mental contrasting on behavior change (Oettingen et al.,
A third mechanism that renders mental contrasting effective is how people respond to set-backs. A. Kappes et al. (
In sum, mental contrasting changes non-conscious cognition, energization, and responses to negative feedback. The exercise of mental contrasting itself, however, is a conscious procedure that is cognitively demanding. Indeed, Achtziger et al. (
Based on the effects and mechanisms of mental contrasting discovered in the laboratory, we created intervention studies testing whether the strategy can be successfully used in the field. These studies show that mental contrasting can be easily taught and that people can apply the strategy by themselves. People can use mental contrasting regarding wishes of any content and pertaining to any life domain (e.g., academic, interpersonal, health). People can use mental contrasting across their life span and regardless of which socio economic status and cultural background they belong to. Mental contrasting helps to resolve short-term concerns and fulfill long-term wishes as it provides clarity and direction of what one wants to achieve and what is necessary to let go of. For example, mental contrasting led health care professionals to successfully manage their everyday life (Oettingen et al.,
As described before, mental contrasting strengthens the association between the reality and the action to overcome the reality (A. Kappes et al.,
Implementation intentions (Gollwitzer,
In this review we shed light on the question of how different modes of self-regulatory thought affect behavior change. We first reported research about free thoughts and images and their impact on effort and success. Specifically, the more positive people's free thoughts and images about their desired futures, the more they failed to exert the necessary effort to attain these futures and the less successful they were—over the course of few weeks to several years. We then presented the strategy of mental contrasting that uses free thoughts and images to achieve prudent (expectancy-dependent) behavior change, regardless of whether the strategy is induced or used spontaneously. Mental contrasting, a conscious, and cognitively demanding strategy develops its effects on behavior change through non-conscious cognitive and motivational mechanisms, as well as by equipping people to effectively respond to set-backs.
Recent intervention studies show that mental contrasting can be easily taught and applied; it can be used by people of all ages and backgrounds to master their every-day life and fulfill their long-term wishes. Mental contrasting is particularly effective in providing sustained behavior change when combined with forming implementation intentions. The self-regulation strategy of mental contrasting adds to the traditional methods of behavior change. The latter have focused on changing people's beliefs as well as the content and structure of their goals (for a review, see Bargh et al.,
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.