In a new set of studies, researchers found that people showed greater goal commitment and performance when they told their goal to someone they believed had higher status(地位) than themselves. In these studies, higher-status people were those who the participants thought had more prestige(威望) than they did.
In one study, 17l undergraduate students were seated at computers and told they had to move a slider(滑块) on the screen to the number 50 as many times as possible within the given time. After counting how many times they successfully did this, they had to do it again, but this time they were told to set and write down a goal.
The experimenter then informed the participants that a lab assistant would come around and check on their goals. In some cases, the lab assistant was dressed in a suit and introduced himself as a doctoral student in the business school who was an expert on today's study topic. For other participants, the same lab assistant dressed in casual clothing and introduced himself as a student at a local community college who was working part time at the business school. A third group of participants didn't share their goals with the lab assistant.
Results showed that participants who shared their goals with the higher-status lab assistant reported they were more willing to achieve the goal they set for themselves than those who told the lower-status assistant. And participants who shared their goal with the lower-status assistant performed no better than those who told no one about their goal. "These findings provide evidence that refutes popular media recommendations that one should stay silent about a goal," said Howard Klein, lead author of the new study.
"Contrary to what you may have heard, in most cases you get more benefit from sharing your goal than if you don't as long as you share it with someone whose opinion you value," Klein said. "You don't want him to think less of you because you didn't achieve your goal."