The motivating function of thinking about the future: Expectations versus fantasies.
Gabriele Oettingen and Doris Mayer separated expectations, beliefs about how likely a wanted outcome is, from fantasies, mental images of the wanted future. Across four studies, covering job-seeking after graduation, starting a relationship with a person the student had a crush on, effort and grades in a university course, and recovery after hip-replacement surgery, positive expectations predicted more effort and better outcomes, and positive fantasies predicted the reverse. The studies were correlational.
Gabriele Oettingen and Doris Mayer separated expectations, beliefs about how likely a wanted outcome is, from fantasies, mental images of the wanted future. Across four studies, covering job-seeking after graduation, starting a relationship with a person the student had a crush on, effort and grades in a university course, and recovery after hip-replacement surgery, positive expectations predicted more effort and better outcomes, and positive fantasies predicted the reverse. The studies were correlational.
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Oettingen, G., & Mayer, D. (2002). The motivating function of thinking about the future: Expectations versus fantasies. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83(5), 1198-1212. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.83.5.1198