Cultivating Optimism: How to Frame Your Future during a

Cultivating Optimism How to Frame YourFuture during a Health Challenge

DONNEL A BRILEYMELANIE RUDDJENNIFER AAKER

Research shows that optimism can positively impact health but when and whypeople feel optimistic when confronting health challenges is less clear Findingsfrom six studies show that the frames people adopt when thinking about healthchallenges influence their optimism about overcoming those challenges and thattheir culture moderates this effect In cultures where the independent self is highlyaccessible individuals adopting an initiator frame (how will I act regardless of thesituations I encounter) were more optimistic than those adopting a responderframe (how will I react to the situations I encounter) the converse occurred forindividuals from cultures where the interdependent self is highly accessibleMoreover mediation and moderation evidence revealed that this interactive effectof culture and frame on optimism was driven by peoplersquos ability to easily imaginethe recovery process These effects held for distinct health challenges (cancerdiabetes flood-related illness traumatic injury) and across single-country andcross-country samples and they impacted positive health outcomes and decisionsranging from anticipated energy physical endurance and willingness to take onmore challenging physical therapy to intentions to get vaccinated stick to adoctor-recommended diet and undertake a physically strenuous vacation

Keywords optimism health culture mental simulation framing

At some point during their lives most people will facea traumatic health event and mounting evidence sug-

gests that psychological factors are vital to recovery(Taylor and Broffman 2011) One such critical factor is op-timism defined as a generalized belief that good outcomes

are possible (Scheier and Carver 1985) Optimismimproves mental and physical well-being augmentingonersquos ability to cope with stress and recover from surgeryfostering better health habits reducing physical symptomsof illness and even extending lives (Carver Scheier andSegerstrom 2010 Scheier and Carver 1985 Taylor et al1992) Yet despite the clear benefits little is known aboutwhen and how people cultivate optimism when confrontedwith a health challenge These questions are particularlyimportant in the context of consumer behavior whereresearchers have increasingly sought to identify ways toencourage people to adopt actions or treatments to improvephysical health (eg vaccines diets or physical therapyregimens Agrawal Menon and Aaker 2007 BublitzPeracchio and Block 2010 Keller and Lehman 2008)

In our research we show that the mental frame peopleadopt when considering how to cope with a health chal-lenge significantly impacts their optimism about recoveryand that culture moderates this effect Across six studieswe predicted and found that when facing a health chal-lenge people with an independent cultural background

Donnel A Briley (donnelbrileysydneyeduau) is professor of mar-

keting School of Business University of Sydney Abercrombie Building

(H70) NSW 2006 Australia Melanie Rudd (mrruddbaueruhedu) is as-

sistant professor of marketing and entrepreneurship C T Bauer College

of Business 4750 Calhoun Road University of Houston Houston TX

77204 Jennifer Aaker (jaakerstanfordedu) is General Atlantic Professor

of Marketing Graduate School of Business 655 Knight Way Stanford

University Stanford CA 94305 This research was supported by a grant

from the University of Sydney Supplementary materials are included in

the web appendix accompanying the online version of this article The

authors gratefully acknowledge the comments of Emily Garbinsky

Correspondence should be addressed to the first author

Vicki Morwitz served as editor and Sharon Shavitt served as associate edi-

tor for this article

Advance Access publication June 21 2017

VC The Author 2017 Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Journal of Consumer Research Inc

All rights reserved For permissions please e-mail journalspermissionsoupcom Vol 44 2017

DOI 101093jcrucx075

895Downloaded from httpsacademicoupcomjcrarticle-abstract4448953876300by University of Houston useron 12 January 2018

who adopt an initiator frame (how will I act regardless ofthe situations I encounter) versus responder frame (howwill I react to the situations I encounter) are more optimis-tic about their recovery and that the converse is true forpeople with an interdependent cultural backgroundFurther these effects on optimism are driven by the extentto which individuals can easily imagine their recovery pro-cess We also show that this greater optimism is reflectedin peoplersquos health-related decisions and leads to beneficialhealth outcomes including greater anticipated energy andphysical endurance stronger preferences for more inten-sive physical therapy and physically strenuous leisure andincreased intentions to use doctor-recommendedtreatments

Through this research we hope to contribute theoretic-ally to a number of literatures including consumer behav-ior mental imagery and framing For instance althoughprior research has found that imagining the processesinvolved in reaching a goal can facilitate goal attainment(Hayes-Roth and Hayes-Roth 1979 Taylor et al 1998)various styles of process-oriented imagining have beenstudied in the literature Our work contributes to this litera-ture by exploring when and why it is more beneficial toadopt one of these imagining styles over another In par-ticular we examined the effectiveness of two such stylesmdashone in which imagery in the mind is understood through aperson-focused initiator frame and another in which it isunderstood through a situation-focused responder frame

The present research also contributes to extant literatureby showing that when an individual uses mental imagery tofind solutions to a health challenge effective cultivation ofoptimism depends not only on how that person framesimages (initiating actions vs responding to situations) butalso on whether this framing is consistent with the personrsquosculturally influenced self-view (ie independent vs inter-dependent) In particular we show that when there is align-ment between onersquos cultural background and the frameadopted optimism about recovering increases because it iseasier to imagine oneself taking necessary steps to get bet-ter (Jiang et al 2014 Petrova and Cialdini 2005) Althoughprior research has shown that matching effects can havemany consequences (Avnet and Higgins 2003 2006Cesario Grant and Higgins 2004 Lee and Aaker 2004)the present research extends this literature by identifyingboth a novel positive outcome of frame alignment (greateroptimism) and a novel mechanism (ease of imaginingonersquos recovery)

Last the present research answers mounting calls forstudies that increase the range of consumption-relatedbehaviors examined contribute to conversations thatstretch across disciplines (Dahl et al 2014) and fundamen-tally improve consumersrsquo well-being (Goldberg 2008Mick et al 2012) Indeed from an applied perspective ourwork offers insights to help consumers recover after theyexperience a serious health challenge (eg recovering

from surgery battling cancer) and help practitioners topositively impact consumersrsquo health-related decisions

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

Mental Simulation and Framing

The path to health recovery is often complicated by un-certainty and unpredictable circumstances which can ham-per good decisions (Haidt and Rodin 1999) Howeverthese obstacles can be better managed when people im-agine themselves taking steps to overcome their healthchallenge which entails generating picture-like mental rep-resentations (Jiang et al 2014 Kosslyn 1976) This par-ticular type of imagery generation which emphasizessimulating the process needed for reaching a goal isreferred to as process-oriented mental simulation orprocess-oriented imagining (Taylor et al 1998) Thoughother forms of mental simulation (eg fantasizing successpainful ruminations outcome-focused simulating) are oftenunhelpful or even maladaptive (Horowitz 1976 KappesSharma and Oettingen 2013 Oettingen 1996 SilverBoon and Stones 1983 Taylor et al 1998) process-oriented imagining has been shown to be beneficial forgoal attainment (Hayes-Roth and Hayes-Roth 1979Markus and Ruvolo 1989 Taylor et al 1998) This is be-cause imagining the process needed to reach a desired endstate offers a view of a hypothetical reality that transcendsthe here and nowmdashproviding a platform for envisioningpossibilities anticipating emotional states building motiv-ation exploring onersquos own potential and ultimately plan-ning for the future effectively (Markus and Nurius 1986Oyserman and Markus 1990 Pham and Taylor 1999Ruvolo and Markus 1992 Taylor et al 1998)

Extant literature however also suggests that there aredifferent styles of process-oriented imagining that peoplemight adopt when envisioning the future (eg when imag-ining the process of recovering from a health challenge)First some research suggests that people might benefitfrom accepting and embracing the uncontrollableever-changing nature of long-term health recovery bydeveloping situation-focused if-then contingency plans(Hayes-Roth and Hayes-Roth 1979 Taylor et al 1998)Another perspective though is that those on the road to re-covery should focus internally emphasizing their own abil-ities and strengths when planning thereby bolstering self-confidence (Niemiec Ryan and Deci 2010) Thus priorresearch has variously touted styles of process-orientedimagining that fit both the former situation-focused ap-proach and the latter person-focused approach for imagin-ing onersquos future (Markus and Ruvolo 1989 Taylor et al1998) However what remains unclear is when and why itmight be more beneficial to adopt one of these imaginingstyles over the other when facing a health challenge

896 JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH

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To address this question we suggest that these two gen-eralized approaches can be understood as different framesthat one might adopt when imagining the future theldquoinitiatorrdquo frame (how will I act regardless of the situa-tions I encounter) and the ldquoresponderrdquo frame (how will Ireact to the situations I encounter) These two proposedframes are in essence knowledge structures stored in mem-ory that guide image generation and are subject to thesame rules as other cognitive procedures (eg they can beactivated by external prompts) But notably whereas mostcognitive procedures directly guide behaviors the frameswe propose guide the depiction of behaviors one imagineswhen thinking about how to reach a goal such as recover-ing from a health challenge Thus once activated a framecan influence which representations drive onersquos imaginingsand how emerging images are interpreted

Consistent with the aforementioned situation-focusedapproach a person might in some cases adopt a responderframe when imagining her or his recovery process Whenthis is the case the images and scenes called to mind arelikely to center on future situations that may be encoun-tered Onersquos actions are seen as embedded within their sur-rounding context sensitive to the flow of externalinfluences Alternatively consistent with the person-focused approach a person might adopt an initiator framewhen imagining her or his recovery process In this casethe resulting images and scenes are likely to highlight theindividual rather than particular situations she or he mightface The individual is often depicted more abstractlywithout detailing the surrounding context or particular sit-uations narrowly focusing on efforts necessary foraddressing the health challenge At a deeper level theinitiator-responder distinction can be characterized by thenature of the representations that are likely to predominatewhen imagery is generated In particular responder versusinitiator frames might be more likely to call up event (situ-ation-related) rather than entity (person-related) representa-tions or to call up situation-related representations that areless broad or generalizable (Wyer 2004)

Though parallels can be drawn between the initiator-responder frame constructs and some extant consumption-relevant dichotomies that also distinguish between beingmore or less situation-focused key differences separateour constructs from these other dichotomies First otherdichotomies differ from ours in that they often pertainonly to a particular domain of activity (eg shoppingMassara Liu and Melara 2010) Second whereas theseother dichotomies are limited to describing the extent towhich situational context draws attention and influencesjudgments and behaviors the frames we propose charac-terize imagined (rather than actual) behaviors and activ-ities and thus operate in the domain of mental imagerywhere the creations of peoplersquos minds are at workExploring the influence of frames for imagining is im-portant because the rules governing real-world behavior

do not necessarily apply to the imagined world (Markusand Nurius 1986)

Third the defining principles underlying the frame di-chotomy we propose also differ from the traditionalcontext-dependence dimension In particular context de-pendence (vs independence) is characterized by a greatertendency to be content rather than struggle with encoun-tered situations to acquiesce or bend to the environmentand to align oneself with group needs (Ji Peng andNisbett 2000 Kuhnen Hannover and Schubert 2001Singelis et al 1995 Weisz Rothbaum and Blackburn1984) However unlike the context-dependence constructthe initiator-responder distinction does not describe the ex-tent to which one is in harmony with or subordinates con-trol to her or his environment This distinction insteadidentifies onersquos orientation (situation-focused person-focused) when imagining the process needed to reach a tar-get end goal such as health recoverymdashnot the intensitywith which one actively pursues this end goal

Along these lines it is also important to note that initi-ator and responder frames can be used to envision the samebehavior or activity For instance when faced with a ser-ious injury and imagining the process for recovering an in-dividual might see herself as a responder and thereforegenerate images that depict various situations she will faceduring recovery and how to address them With this per-spective she might anticipate particular difficult situations(sleepless nights due to pain) and form a plan for address-ing these occasions (physical therapy) Alternatively shecould see herself as an initiator and imagine the future withless sensitivity to the specific situations that might emergeShe might develop general person-focused solutions to pur-sue in this case such as committing to spend more timedoing physical therapy As this anecdote illustrates thesame physical therapy solution can arise via the initiator orresponder imagining process though the resulting mentalimagery either ties the activity to the situation (responder)or individual (initiator)

Culture and Consumer Choice

Consumersrsquo cultural backgrounds we suggest affectwhich of these frames is most effective for cultivating opti-mism when one imagines onersquos health recovery In the lastthree decades researchers have conceptualized culture interms of the view of the self Over time as people graspand internalize the prevailing norms and values of the soci-ety in which they live they tend to develop either a chron-ically accessible interdependent or independent self-viewWesterners typically adopt an independent view of the selfand East Asians typically adopt an interdependent view(Markus and Kitayama 1991) This distinction has implica-tions for how people make sense of the social world aswell as their basic cognitive processes (Briley Wyer andLi 2014 Mourey Oyserman and Yoon 2013)

BRILEY RUDD AND AAKER 897


People with highly accessible independent selves definethemselves by their distinct attributes qualities and char-acteristics and gaining this important knowledge requiresdrawing generalizations across situational contexts For ex-ample a student might be described as hardworking be-cause he puts a great deal of effort into his classes job andsports activities Thus in the process of developing an in-dependent self-view one becomes accustomed to centeringonersquos thinking on the individual and organizing knowledgestructures accordingly On the other hand those with inter-dependent selves define people based on important rela-tionships and connections to others Because theacquisition of this knowledge depends on attending to so-cial context and adjusting to its changes (Kuhnen et al2001) people with a dominant interdependent (vs inde-pendent) self-view tend to see people and the surroundingsthey encounter as intertwined and inseparable adopting amore holistic view that integrates person and situation(Masuda et al 2008 Monga and John 2007)

Our contention is that imagery-generation processes canbe influenced by onersquos self-view As a starting point priorresearch has shown that the accessibility of situation-specific information in memory differs depending on self-view For instance when describing themselves in theTwenty Statements Test (Cousins 1989) Japanese individ-uals use more situation-qualified descriptors (eg I workhard at tennis) whereas Americans use more situation-irrelevant descriptors (eg I am hardworking) Morris andPeng (1994) provided further evidence of this assertion byanalyzing news reports of mass murders They comparedarticles about two assailantsmdashGang Lu (a Chinese physicsstudent) and Thomas McIlvane (an American postalworker)mdashthat appeared in the leading English-language(New York Times) and Chinese-language (World Journal)newspapers These newspapers were targeted at Americanand Chinese communities respectively In the articlesChinese reporters most often suggested that situationalforces impinging on the assailant caused the tragedy (ega recent firing or isolation from loved ones) whereasAmerican reporters most often attributed the events tocharacteristics internal to the assailant (eg a bad temperor mental instability)

Further evidence of this pattern has emerged inexaminations of cognitions guiding judgments rather thandecisions or behaviors In a study by Masuda et al(2008) American and Japanese participants assessed thehappiness of a person who appears in a photo with otherpeople in the background The Americans relied on the fa-cial expression of the focal person to determine his happi-ness whereas the Japanese spent relatively more timefocusing on the facial expressions of the people in thebackground and drew on these contextual factors whenassessing the focal personrsquos happiness This researchshows that for the interdependent self behaviors areunderstood to be intertwined with and to emerge from the

context in which they occur For the independent self thecontext is less important

In our research we seek to forge a connection betweenthis work and the literature on matching and fit effects Inparticular we posit that when people are facing a healthchallenge optimism should be most effectively cultivatedunder conditions that activate a frame that is more alignedwith their culturersquos normative viewpoint Prior researchhas shown that alignment between the task at hand and apersonrsquos goal orientation can influence many judgment anddecision-making outcomes (Avnet and Higgins 2006Cesario et al 2004 Lee and Aaker 2004) The present re-search aims to extend this literature by exploring a differ-ent type of alignmentmdashthat between onersquos culturalbackground and the type of mental simulation frame oneadoptsmdashand identifying its effect on optimism an outcomethat has yet to be examined in the extant matching and fitliterature In particular we posit that to generate greateroptimism when imagining how to address a health chal-lenge people with an independent self-view should adoptan initiator frame which elicits imagery focusing on the in-dividual and his or her actions rather than the situations inwhich these actions occur Those with an interdependentself-view on the other hand should embrace a responderframe which elicits imagery focusing on situations onemight encounter and appropriate responses

We also posit that having such alignment increases opti-mism by facilitating onersquos ability to imagine undertakingthe steps needed to overcome the health challenge Whenalignment occurs between the mental simulation frame thata person adopts and her or his predominant self-view thefuture activities he or she imagines should be depictedmore readily and in a more familiar way Indeed researchhas shown that people have a harder time comprehendingrelevant task information when they approach the task witha perspective that differs from that which they are disposi-tionally inclined to use (Lee and Labroo 2004 WyerHung and Jiang 2008 Wyer and Xu 2010) And if it is eas-ier for the person to imagine the process of recovering therecovery plan should seem more definite and feasible andthe attainment of the desired health outcome should be per-ceived as more likely to actually occur (Mandel Petrovaand Cialdini 2006 Sherman et al 1985) Consequently op-timism about recovering should increase

Notably the mechanism we propose departs from priorresearch in that past work has generally pointed to a per-sonrsquos feelings of fit (processing fluency) as the driver ofmatching-related effects Fit creates a feeling of being rightabout reactions to stimuli increasing the importance of andengagement in these reactions whether positive or nega-tive (Avnet and Higgins 2006) However feelings of fitcannot adequately account for our predicted optimismeffects in the health recovery domain When facing ahealth challenge and imagining onersquos future experiencesand behaviors one is likely to have positive reactions to



imagined triumphs or progress and negative reactions toimagined struggles pains or setbacks Consequently anaccount based on feelings of fit would predict that the im-portance or strength of all of these reactionsmdashboth positiveand negativemdashwould be equally enhanced and that as a re-sult optimism could potentially increase decrease or beleft unchanged depending on the mix of positive and nega-tive reactions This differs from the ease-of-imagining ac-count which offers a straight prediction of greateroptimism Regardless of how difficult that recovery pro-cess is envisioned to be when it is easier for people to im-agine themselves undertaking the recovery process theyshould believe that recovery is more likely to actuallyoccur boosting optimism

Returning to our previous example a woman who hassuffered serious injuries might imagine doing physicaltherapy to get better (and this activity could be consideredregardless of whether she adopts an initiator or responderframe) But importantly we propose that the ease withwhich she can imagine herself engaging in and completingthis imagined activity should be influenced by the combin-ation of the frame she adopts (initiator or responder) andher cultural background If she is Chinese and thus likelyhas an interdependent self-view she should be able tomore easily imagine these therapy sessions with a re-sponder (vs initiator) frame in place and as a resultshould become more optimistic about the recovery aheadOn the other hand if she is European American and thuslikely has an independent self-view she should be able tomore easily imagine these sessions with an initiator (vs re-sponder) frame in place and as a result should becomemore optimistic about the recovery ahead In sum we pre-dict an interactive effect of culture (independent vs inter-dependent) and frame (initiator vs responder) onoptimism an effect that is mediated by the ease with whichpeople can imagine carrying out activities planned forrecovering from their health challenge

H1a For participants facing a health challenge their cul-

tural background and frame will have an interactive effect

on their optimism about recovering (a) when participants

with independent self-views imagine activities for recover-

ing from a health challenge they are more optimistic about

recovering if they adopt an initiator (vs responder) frame

(b) when participants with interdependent self-views im-

agine the process of recovering from a health challenge

they are more optimistic about recovering if they adopt a re-

sponder (vs initiator) frame

H1b For participants facing a health challenge the inter-

active effect of a participantrsquos culture and frame on their op-

timism will be reflected in health-related decisions (willing-

ness to take on more challenging physical therapy during

recovery preference for physically challenging leisure and

intent to use or follow recommended treatments)

H2 For participants facing a health challenge the inter-

active effect of a participantrsquos culture and frame on their

optimism is mediated by the ease with which they can im-

agine engaging in the activities they are planning for over-

coming their health challenge

OVERVIEW OF STUDIES

We present six studies to examine how cultural back-ground and the frame participants adopt impact their opti-mism when confronting a health challenge In study 1Asian American and European American participantsimagined they had been seriously injured in a car accidenthad either a responder or initiator frame activated whenthinking about what they would do to recover and thentold us what vacations and diet plans they would choose inthe wake of this incident In line with our predictions par-ticipants made choices reflecting a more optimistic outlookwhen their cultural backgrounds and frame matched AsianAmericans who adopted a responder (vs initiator) framewere more likely to choose the more physically demandingvacation plan and believed they could follow the diet for alonger time whereas European Americans who adopted aninitiator (vs responder) frame were more likely to choosethe more physically demanding vacation plan and believedthey could follow the diet for a longer time

In study 2 Asian American and European Americancancer survivors adopted either a responder or initiatorframe when thinking about how to address their illnessthen reported how optimistic they were about overcomingtheir cancer and for convergent validity told us how muchphysical energy they anticipated feeling in the future Weexpected these two measures to converge because apatientrsquos outlook for recovering and perceptions of avail-able energy for fueling this fight are related (Achat et al2000 Schroder Schwarzer and Konertz 1998) and areboth positively associated with recovery echoing the inex-tricable link between physiological and psychologicalstates (Crum et al 2011 Crum Salovey and Achor 2013Taylor et al 1992) As predicted Asian American cancersurvivors were more optimistic about recovering whenthey adopted a responder (vs initiator) frame whereasEuropean American cancer survivors were more optimisticwhen they adopted an initiator (vs responder) frameParticipantsrsquo anticipated physical energy showed a similarpattern

Building on these findings study 3 showed effects ofinitiator versus responder frames on peoplersquos physical en-durance directly establishing that the influence of theseframes encompasses physiological outcomes We askedAsian Americans and European Americans to imagine theywere recently diagnosed with cancer After being promptedto adopt either an initiator or responder frame they consid-ered how they could stay active while fighting the diseaseand repeatedly squeezed a handgrip while developing apersonal plan for exercising We recorded the force they



applied to the handgrip and used this as a behavioral meas-ure of physical endurance The results replicated the pat-tern found in study 2 Asian Americans exhibited greaterphysical endurance when adopting a responder (vs initi-ator) frame and European Americans exhibited greaterphysical endurance when adopting an initiator (vs re-sponder) frame

Having established the interactive effect of culture andframe on optimism in the remaining studies (studies 4ndash6)we focused on testing the mechanism underlying it Study4 showed that the ease with which participants could im-agine their coping activities after a serious injury mediatesthe influence that culture and frame have on optimismStudy 5 sought to provide additional support for our pro-posed mechanism via moderation this study manipulatedthe extent to which participants could readily produce men-tal imagery and found converging evidence for the role ofease of imagining the recovery process Last in study 6US flood victims had initiator or responder frames acti-vated while reading an advertisement about a vaccine thatprotects against flood-related illnesses and then indicatedtheir likelihood of getting vaccinated optimism about thevaccinersquos effectiveness and the ease with which they couldimagine getting vaccinated Importantly study 6 used adifferent measure of cultural background for convergentvalidity Rather than use participantsrsquo ethnicity as an indi-cator of their self-views we included a direct measureSupporting our model a moderated serial mediation ana-lysis revealed that the interactive effect of frame and self-view (ie independence-interdependence) on reportedlikelihood of getting vaccinated was serially mediated byease of imagining and optimism

STUDY 1 CULTURE FRAME ANDCONSUMER BEHAVIOR

The primary objective of study 1 was to test our predic-tion that when people are facing a health challenge therewould be an interactive effect of their culture and frame(ie initiator vs responder) on their optimism for recov-ery as reflected in health-related decisions We recruitedAsian American and European American participantsasked them to imagine that they had just been severelyinjured in a car accident and prompted them to adopt ei-ther an initiator or responder frame while considering howthey would address their health challenge We then askedthem to consider (a) which of two vacation packages theywould prefer in the wake of this injury a highly physicalldquoadventurerdquo package or a ldquorelaxingrdquo package that did notrequire much physical exertion and (b) how long theythought they would be able to follow a healthy diet planrecommended by their doctor We expected that whenthere was alignment between participantsrsquo cultural back-ground and frame they would more strongly prefer the

physically strenuous adventure package and stick with thedoctor-recommended diet plan for a longer period oftimemdashdecisions that reflect greater optimism about theirrecovery and future health

Though our predictions are cross-cultural in naturestudy 1 relied on a single-country sample that included par-ticipants from both interdependent (Asian Americans) andindependent (European Americans) cultural backgroundsfor two reasons First cross-national comparisons cannotcontrol for many nonculture factors that might affect studyresults Thus to attenuate potential confounds we focusedon participants with substantial experience and residencyin a single country Second since bicultural AsianAmericans are likely to have experienced at least some ac-culturation to Western society their comparison toEuropean Americans should provide a strong conservativetest of our predictions

Participants and Procedure

Participants were 100 European Americans (Mage frac143670 49 females) and 100 Asian Americans (Mage frac143125 34 females) They were recruited from EuropeanAmerican and Asian American MTurk panels told that theresearchers were interested in understanding how peopledeal with illnesses or injury and paid $100 for participat-ing The study used a 2 (ethnicity European AmericanAsian American) 2 (frame initiator responder) designwith all manipulations between-subjects

Participants were asked to imagine being in a car acci-dent in the future and regaining consciousness in the hos-pital only to discover that they have multiple leg fracturesa badly broken hip and spinal vertebrae damage Theywere told these injuries could cause nerve damage and re-quire several surgeries and a long period of physical ther-apy They were asked to consider how they would addressthis health challenge and to describe the behaviors activ-ities and coping mechanism they had in mind In the initi-ator condition they were told to ldquoconsider how you wouldactrdquo write down the ldquoactions you would takerdquo and de-scribe ldquoeach action that comes to mindrdquo In the respondercondition they were told to ldquoconsider how you wouldreactrdquo write down the ldquoresponses you would haverdquo anddescribe ldquoeach response that comes to mindrdquo

After participants had read the injury scenario and con-sidered what to do to recover from the injury we presentedthem with two different scenario questions (the order inwhich these questions were shown was randomized) Inone scenario participants were told they would be goingon a vacation a year from now but that they would need tobegin planning and making reservations for their chosendestination right away They were presented with two vac-ation packagesmdashan ldquoadventure vacation packagerdquo thatinvolved lots of opportunities for physical activities (eghiking biking swimming and rock climbing) and a



ldquorelaxing vacation packagerdquo that involved scenic andrelaxing activities (and required little physical activity)Participants were also told that their doctor had advisedthem that the average person suffering from injuries liketheirs would reach full recovery in one year but that theirrecovery could be faster or slower Participants then told uswhich of these vacation packages they would be morelikely to choose for their upcoming vacation (0 frac14 relaxingvacation package 1 frac14 adventure vacation package)

In the other scenario participants were told that aftercareful consideration of their particular nutritional andphysiological needs their doctor and nutritionist recom-mended that they follow the South Beach Diet during theirrecovery After reading a short description of the diet planparticipants learned that most people recovering from aserious injury are able to stick to strict healthy diet planslike this if their recovery is proceeding well but that thosewho struggle during their recovery (eg chronic pain slowrecovery progress) typically have a much more difficulttime consistently sticking with the diet plan They werealso told that their doctor recommends they try to strictlyfollow the diet for 14 months Participants then told us howlong they thought they would be able to stick with the dietplan (1 frac14 less than 2 months 2 frac14 2 months tolt 4 months3 frac14 4 months tolt 6 months 4 frac14 6 months tolt 8 months 5frac14 8 months tolt 10 months 6 frac14 10 months tolt 12 months7 frac14 12 months to 14 months) Last participants provideddemographic information

Results and Discussion

We conducted logistic regression analyses to examineparticipantsrsquo choice of vacation package (relaxing packagefrac14 0 adventure package frac14 1) as a function of their culturalbackground (European American frac14 0 Asian American frac141) and frame (initiator frac14 0 responder frac14 1) The resultsrevealed the predicted significant interaction betweenframe and culture (b frac14 231 v2(1) frac14 1171 p lt 01)European American participants in the initiator condition(38) were more likely to choose the physically strenuousadventure vacation package than were the EuropeanAmerican participants in the responder condition (16bfrac14 ndash123 v2(1) frac14 641 p frac14 01) whereas AsianAmerican participants in the initiator condition (18) wereless likely to choose the physically strenuous adventurepackage than were Asian American participants in the re-sponder condition (38 bfrac14 108 v2(1) frac14 532 p frac14 02)

We also conducted a two-way ANOVA to examine howlong participants thought they could stick with the doctor-recommended diet plan as a function of their cultural back-ground (European American frac14 0 Asian American frac14 1)and frame (initiator frac14 0 responder frac14 1) The resultsrevealed the predicted frame-by-culture interaction (F(1196) frac14 1167 p lt 01) European American participantswho were in the initiator condition (M frac14 573 SDfrac14 164)

reported that they would be able to stick with the doctor-recommended diet plan for a longer period of time than didEuropean Americans in the responder condition (M frac14480 SDfrac14 193 F(1 196) frac14 684 p frac14 01) In contrastAsian American participants who were in the respondercondition (M frac14 561 SDfrac14 168) reported that they wouldbe able to stick with the doctor-recommended diet plan fora longer period of time than did Asian Americans in theinitiator condition (M frac14 482 SDfrac14 184 F(1 196) frac14491 p frac14 03) Neither main effect was significant (Fs lt08 NS)

Taken together the findings of study 1 provide initialsupport for our prediction that when one is facing a healthchallenge there is an interactive effect of the personrsquos cul-ture and frame on decisions and judgments pertaining toher or his future health This pattern held for participantsrsquoselections of physically challenging activities and assess-ments of their own future success at maintaining a doctor-recommended diet planmdashboth of which relate to optimismabout the progress of health recovery In our next studywe use a direct self-report measure of optimism to test ourpredictions Moreover instead of having participants im-agine that they are facing a health challenge study 2 high-lights the generalizability of our findings by surveyingcancer patients

STUDY 2 CANCER PATIENTSrsquoOPTIMISM AND ANTICIPATED ENERGY

Study 2 was designed to highlight the role that optimismcan play in health recovery by replicating the pattern foundin study 1 using a direct measure of optimism Further wesought to establish the external validity of our findings bytesting our predictions using participants who are experi-encing a real health challenge To achieve both goals werecruited European American and Asian American cancersurvivors prompted them to adopt either an initiator or re-sponder frame and asked them to consider how they wouldaddress their cancer illness in the future We then exam-ined how optimistic they felt about beating the disease andhow much energy they had to do so


Seventy-one European American and 61 AsianAmerican cancer survivors (54 female Mage frac14 368MTimeSinceDiagnosis frac14 6 years 8 months) were recruited byan online market research firm paid $20 for participatingand told that the study was about how people with canceraddress health challenges All participants had been diag-nosed with cancer after turning 21 years of age The studyrelied on a 2 (culture European American AsianAmerican) 2 (frame initiator responder) between-subjects design



Participants were first prompted to think about how theywould address the problems raised by their cancer illnessldquoConsider your illness and its effect on your health Thenthink about how you will deal with the problems and issuesyou will face in the future What is your long-term plan forstaying as healthy as you canrdquo To activate a responderframe or initiator frame we manipulated the wording ofthe subsequent instructions In the initiator condition par-ticipants were told to consider ldquohow you will act to addressthis health threatrdquo and to ldquoindicate actions you have inmind by writing a phrase or sentence to describe each ac-tion that you are consideringrdquo Participants in the respondercondition were told to consider ldquohow you will reactrdquo and toldquoindicate responses you will have by writing a phrase orsentence to describe each response you are consideringrdquo

All participants reported their feelings of optimismabout overcoming their illness using four measures thatdraw upon Reed et al (1999) and that indicate problem-specific optimism (ldquohave a positive outlookrdquo 1 frac14 lowchance to 7 frac14 high chance) confidence about the course ofrecovery (ldquogetting better quicklyrdquo 1 frac14 low probability to 7frac14 high probability) expectations about the course(ldquorecovery speedrdquo 1 frac14 slow to 7 frac14 fast) and perceivedcontrol over the situation (ldquocan beat this challengerdquo 1 frac14strongly agree to 7 frac14 strongly disagree) These items wereaveraged to form an optimism index (a frac14 86)

Next participants reported how much energy theyexpected to feel in the near future so that we could under-stand whether greater optimism does indeed precipitate thebelief that one possesses greater energy resourcesSpecifically they told us how often during the next fewmonths (1 frac14 none of the time 6 frac14 all of the time Loriget al 1996) they expected to ldquofeel worn outrdquo (reverse-scored) ldquohave a lot of energyrdquo ldquohave enough energy to dothings you want to dordquo and ldquofeel full of peprdquo These itemswere averaged to form an anticipated energy index (a frac1471) Last participants provided demographics and weredebriefed

To ensure that the frame manipulation (initiator vs re-sponder) used in this study indeed influenced peoplersquos per-spectives as expected we ran a post-hoc pre-test Sixty-two European Americans and 55 Asian Americans read ascenario in which they were asked to imagine having a can-cer illness then were presented with our study stimuliThey thought about how to deal with this health challengeand were prompted to do so with either the initiator or re-sponder version of the instructions After writing theirplanned activities they indicated (1 frac14 strongly disagree to7 frac14 strongly agree) the extent to which while planningthey ldquofocused on situations you might encounterrdquoldquoavoided thinking about details of your own actionsrdquoldquofocused on actions you might takerdquo (reverse-scored) andldquoavoided thinking about details of the situations you couldfacerdquo (reverse-scored) These items were averaged to forma person-situation index (a frac14 76) with higher scores

indicating greater focus on the situation As expected a 2(culture European American Asian American) 2(frame initiator responder) ANOVA revealed only a sig-nificant main effect of the frame manipulation (F(1 113)frac14 429 p lt 05 other Fslt 12 NS) participants in the re-sponder condition (M frac14 506 SD frac14 71) reported beingmore situation-focused (vs person-focused) than did thosein the initiator condition (M frac14 458 SD frac14 82)


A two-way ANOVA was used to analyze feelings of op-timism as a function of cultural background (EuropeanAmerican Asian American) and frame (initiator re-sponder) As expected the interaction was significant (F(1128) frac14 835 p lt 01) Asian Americans were more opti-mistic when prompted to adopt a responder (M frac14 529SDfrac14 109) rather than initiator frame (M frac14 467SDfrac14 158 F(1 128) frac14 409 p lt 05) EuropeanAmericans had the opposite pattern they had a more opti-mistic outlook in the initiator condition (M frac14 532 SD frac1484) than in the responder condition (M frac14 474 SDfrac14 114F(1 128) frac14 428 p lt 05) Neither main effect was signifi-cant (Fs lt 07 NS)

Another two-way ANOVA examined participantsrsquoanticipated energy The results revealed a significant inter-action (F(1 127) frac14 405 p lt 05) European Americansthought they would have more energy when prompted toadopt an initiator frame (M frac14 324 SD frac14 66) rather than aresponder frame (M frac14 292 SD frac14 48) F(1 127) frac14 400p frac14 05) The opposite pattern held for Asian Americansthey anticipated having more energy in the responder con-dition (M frac14 319 SD frac14 75) than the initiator condition (Mfrac14 304 SD frac14 73) though this difference did not reach sig-nificance (F(1 127) frac14 79 p frac14 38)

Finally we looked for evidence that participantsrsquoexpectations of having energy in the future were driven bytheir feelings of optimism If this were true we might ex-pect that the influence of the culture-by-frame interactionon energy expectations is mediated by felt optimism Wetested this prediction using a moderated mediation boot-strap analysis (10000 resamples PROCESS model 8) Wepredicted energy reports using frame type (initiator frac14 0 re-sponder frac14 1) as the independent variable cultural back-ground (European American frac14 0 Asian American frac14 1) asthe moderator and optimism as the mediator Results sup-ported this prediction the confidence interval for the esti-mate of the indirect effect did not include zero suggestingsignificant moderated mediation (b frac14 17 SE frac14 09 95CI [04 40]) Additional examinations of the conditionalindirect effects indicated significant mediation forboth European Americans (b frac14 ndash07 SE frac14 04 95 CI[ndash19 ndash01]) and Asian Americans (szlig frac14 10 SE frac14 0695 CI [01 27])



In sum using a sample of cancer survivors study 2showed that Asian Americans reported greater optimismabout recovering when they considered their futures with aresponder (vs initiator) frame whereas EuropeanAmericans expressed greater optimism when consideringtheir futures with an initiator (vs responder) frame Study2 also found that a similar pattern emerged for the amountof energy participants anticipated having during their re-covery (the initiator vs responder contrast for AsianAmericans did not reach significance however) and thatfeelings of optimism drove this perceived anticipatedenergy

Importantly to extend the generalizability of the opti-mism findings from study 2 we conducted a follow-upstudy to examine the interactive effect of culture and frameon optimism when samples from different countries (asopposed to single-country samples) were comparedParticipants were 108 European American college studentsand 80 Chinese college students and the study used a 2(culture American Chinese) 2 (frame responder initi-ator) between-subjects design In this study we used thesame serious injuryhealth challenge scenario and framemanipulation used in study 1 and measured optimism as instudy 2 As predicted a two-way ANOVA on the optimismindex revealed a significant frame-by-culture interaction(F(1 184) frac14 613 p lt 01) Consistent with the results ofstudy 2 European Americans were more optimistic whenthey adopted an initiator (M frac14 490 SD frac14 96) rather thana responder frame (M frac14 443 SDfrac14 110 F(1 184) frac14542 p lt 05) whereas Chinese respondents were moreoptimistic when they adopted a responder (M frac14 510 SDfrac14 96) rather than an initiator frame (M frac14 455 SDfrac14 131F(1 184) frac14 496 p lt 05)

Having replicated in our follow-up study the pattern ofoptimism results from study 2 using a different healthchallenge and operationalization of culture we next soughtto provide more evidence of the tie between our frame ma-nipulation and energy resources so as to bolster the find-ings from study 2rsquos anticipated energy analysis Moreoverto show that our effects encompass physiological (in add-ition to psychological) aspects of recovery we focused ona recovery-relevant behavioral measure physicalendurance

STUDY 3 CANCER AND PHYSICALENDURANCE

Study 3 examined whether the interactive effect of cul-tural background and frame extends from the energy peo-ple anticipate having to that which they physically expendonce the frame is activated In particular Asian Americansand European Americans considered what they would do ifthey were to find out that they have cancer and then whileplanning exercises they could undertake to stay healthy

after this diagnosis squeezed a handgrip repeatedlyImportantly we manipulated the handgrip task instructionssuch that participants were prompted to adopt either an ini-tiator or responder frame Moreover our health scenariohad participants consider getting colon cancer which has asimilar likelihood of occurring for Asian Americans andEuropean Americans (US Cancer Statistics WorkingGroup 2014)


Fifty-five European American (Mage frac14 251 27 female)and 54 Asian American (Mage frac14 217 37 female) studentsat a West Coast university were recruited through an onlinepanel and paid $20 to participate All completed the studyindividually in a lab equipped with a computer whichshowed all stimuli and collected all responses and a handdynamometer Two Asian Americans and four EuropeanAmericans did not complete the handgrip exercise and thuswere not included in the analyses The study used a 2 (cul-ture Asian American European American) 2 (frameinitiator responder) between-subjects design

In the study participants read that researchers wereinterested in understanding how people deal with illnessThey were then asked to imagine making a routine visit tothe doctor having some follow-up tests and discoveringthat they have a small cancerous tumor in their colon Theywere also told that surgery and other treatments would beneeded to fight the disease Next to help participants betterunderstand and empathize with the challenges cancer sur-vivors face they were presented with some personal storiesof cancer survivors Specifically they watched a 4 minuteinformational video in which real cancer patients talk can-didly about their fight with the disease

Participants then completed some filler tasks beforereading the cover story that explained the key task whichinvolved a handgrip (ie a dynamometer which sensesand records the squeeze force applied by a participant overtime) They were told to think about how they could stayactive while fighting the disease and to develop a plan forexercising with this in mind Then participants saw a slide-show in which each slide had a description of an exerciseand a picture of a person performing that exercise Theyviewed 20 exercises each appearing for 10 seconds andthought about which of these exercises they wanted to doand how often They were asked to multitask while doingtheir planning to reflect the type of environment theywould naturally encounter in real life and told that theywould be randomly assigned to one of several differenttasksmdashalthough in reality all participants took part in thehandgrip task Following the approach of previous hand-grip studies no specific goal was set (Park and RoedderJohn 2014) participants were just told to firmly and repeat-edly squeeze and release the handgrip with their dominanthand to use a steady rhythm and to be as smooth and



consistent as possible The handgrip is initially easy topress but becomes more difficult (due to fatigue) as it ispressed more times

Importantly we manipulated the wording of the finalhandgrip task instructions so that either an initiator or re-sponder frame was activated using the same type of word-ing manipulation used in study 1 In the initiator conditionparticipants were told to consider ldquohow you will need toact daily to exercise regularlyrdquo ldquowhat actions you willneed to takerdquo and ldquohow you should act to ensure hardwork and successrdquo when exercising In the responder con-dition they were asked to consider ldquohow you will need toreact daily to exercise regularlyrdquo ldquowhat responses you willneed to haverdquo and ldquohow you should react to ensure hardwork and successrdquo when exercising Last they completeddemographics were asked the purpose of the study (noneguessed correctly) and were debriefed


We allowed participants 10 seconds to adjust to thesqueezing task and examined the average force they appliedto the grip in the subsequent minute Mean force during thistimeframe was analyzed as a function of ethnicity (AsianAmerican European American) and activated frame (initi-ator responder) The results revealed a significant two-wayinteraction (F(1 96) frac14 841 p lt 01) the force applied tothe handgrip by European Americans was greater in the ini-tiator (M frac14 2598 SDfrac14 2479) than the responder condition(M frac14 1512 SDfrac14 1570 F(1 96) frac14 451 p lt 05) and theforce applied by Asian Americans was greater in the re-sponder (M frac14 2203 SDfrac14 1624) than the initiator condi-tion (M frac14 1204 SDfrac14 1364 F(1 96) frac14 390 p frac14 05)Neither main effect was significant (Fslt 1)

The results of study 3 established that once activatedframes can influence the energy participants expend on aphysical task Namely European Americans put forth moreeffort when squeezing a handgrip after adopting an initiator(vs responder) frame and Asian Americans put forth moreeffort after adopting a responder (vs initiator) frameTherefore the results of studies 2 and 3 demonstrate thatwhen contemplating future health recovery activities theimpact of a personrsquos frame and cultural background isreflected in both psychological indicators (ie optimismand anticipated energy) and physiological indicators (iephysical endurance) of positive health outcomes

Moreover we ran another ancillary study to further testwhether as our theory proposes our responder (vs initi-ator) frame manipulation affects participantsrsquo tendencies tohave situation-focused (vs person-focused) thinking and torule out alternative explanations (by including measures ofrelevant variables that could be responsible for our effects)In particular it is possible that our manipulation could alsoalter how vulnerable participants feel to a health threattheir affective state or their motivational inclinations

To examine these possibilities 126 European Americans(Mage frac14 371 53 female) and 124 Asian Americans(Mage frac14 301 44 female) read a scenario in which theywere asked to imagine having cancer and to consider howthey would deal with this health challenge prompted withthe same responder or initiator language as in studies 1ndash3

Participants wrote about their planned activities and thento examine the effect of our manipulation we asked them toindicate the extent to which they had been situationallyfocused when imagining the process of recovering by indicat-ing their agreement with three items serving as a manipula-tion check (adapted from Choi Koo and Choi 2007)Participants were asked to indicate (a) the importance of con-sidering the situation a person faces to understand her or hisbehavior (b) whether things that happen have numerous un-known causes and (c) whether things that happen entail anumber of unknown consequences (1 frac14 strongly disagree 7frac14 strongly agree a frac14 83) Participants then reported theirperceptions of the likelihood that they currently have cancer(0 frac14 I definitely do not have it 100 frac14 I definitely have it) ormight get the disease in the future (1 frac14 not at all likely 7 frac14very likely) positive and negative affect (apositive frac14 86anegative frac14 84 PANAS Thompson 2007) mood (apositive frac1487 anegative frac14 85 aarousal frac14 57 apleasant frac14 87 BMISMayer and Gaschke 1988) eagerness and vigilance (aeagerness

frac14 76 avigilence frac14 78 Miele Molden and Gardner 2009)and deliberativeness and implemental orientations (adeliberative

frac14 66 aimplemental frac14 77 Bayer and Gollwitzer 2005)We ran a full-model ANOVA 2 (culture European

American Asian American) 2 (frame responder initi-ator) with age and gender as covariates on the three-itemmanipulation-check index As expected there was a maineffect only of frame (F(1 151) frac14 760 p lt 01 otherFslt 1 NS) such that those in responder conditions (M frac14523 SD frac14 81) reported holding a stronger situation-focused perspective than did those in initiator conditions(M frac14 488 SD frac14 73) Thus the frame manipulationworked as intended We also ran full 2 2 ANOVAs onall other measures the results revealed no significant mainor interactive effects (Fslt 15 NS) suggesting that pos-sible spurious variables were not at play and garneringgreater confidence in our explanation

Having established the predicted pattern of optimismeffects and ruled out several alternative explanations in stud-ies 1ndash3 we turn to examinations of the mechanism underly-ing these effects in our remaining studies In particularstudy 4 tests hypothesis 2 empirically exploring the driverof the interactive effect of culture and frame on optimism

STUDY 4 EASE OF IMAGINING AS AMEDIATOR

People spontaneously generate picture-like representa-tions of actions they are planning and the development of



such images can be hindered when processing is difficultduring decisions (Jiang et al 2014) If true the images ofplanned activities held in memory should be more cogni-tively available (Tversky and Kahneman 1973) when themental simulation frame one adopts aligns (vs does notalign) with onersquos usual way of thinking In particular ourtheory predicts that the mental images pertaining to theprocess of overcoming a health challenge should be easierto generate when people in independent cultures adopt aninitiator (vs responder) frame and when people in inter-dependent cultures adopt a responder (vs initiator) frameAnd when the ease of imagining health-related activities isfacilitated in this way we predict greater optimism iscultivated

To test this predicted mechanism we asked participantsin study 4 to make plans for addressing a health threatwhile adopting either an initiator or responder frame thenreport their optimism (as in the prior studies) But in add-ition as a measure of the availability of the underlyingmental images they indicated how easily they could im-agine themselves undertaking their planned activities andbehaviors If the interactive effect of frame and culture onoptimism is indeed due to differences across conditions inthe ease with which these mental images are formed weshould find that ease of imagining mediates our effects

For convergent validity study 4 used a different healthchallengemdashdiabetesmdashand a different initiator-respondermanipulation In studies 1ndash3 we activated different framesby using initiator-related words (act action) or responder-related words (respond response) Though our manipula-tion check pretest (discussed in study 2) and post-test (dis-cussed in study 3) offer evidence that this approacheffectively manipulated participantsrsquo sensitivity to futuresituations and context during the planning task it is pos-sible that exposure to our key phrases had other con-founded associations that could affect our results (egdifferent tendencies to indicate urgency or elicit emotionalreactions) Thus in study 4 we instead manipulated the ex-tent to which participantsrsquo own actions (initiator frame)versus the situational contexts they might face (responderframe) were made salient in the instructions


Participants were 100 European Americans (Mage frac14328 50 female) and 74 Asian Americans (Mage frac14 29342 female) They were recruited by a market researchfirm paid $1 for participating and told that the study wasabout how people deal with their health challenges Thestudy used a 2 (culture European American AsianAmerican) 2 (frame initiator responder) between-subjects design

First participants were presented with a diabetes scen-ario They were asked to imagine a routine visit to the doc-tor in which they find out they are developing diabetes and

need to improve their eating habits According to their doc-tor the consequences of not doing so include serious healththreats such as ldquoglaucoma and deteriorated vision cardio-vascular disease high blood pressure and kidney diseaserdquoAfter imagining this scenario they were asked to writedown four things they would do to address this healththreat using a phrase or sentence The instructions for thispart of the task included our manipulation of frame In theresponder condition the instructions drew participantsrsquo at-tention to the various types of situations and events thatmight emerge by having them focus on ldquosituations youmight facerdquo ldquocircumstances that ariserdquo and not gettingldquolost thinking too much about the details of your ownactionsrdquo In the initiator condition the instructions insteaddrew participantsrsquo attention to their own acting regardlessof the context in which it occurs by having them focus ldquoonyour own actionsrdquo taking ldquoaction regardless of the circum-stancesrdquo and not getting ldquolost thinking too much about thedetails of all of the situations you could facerdquo

After completing the diabetes scenario task participantsreported their current optimism using the same four-itemscale as in study 2 (a frac14 87) Then after some filler itemsthey completed our measures of ease of imagining Tounderstand how readily they could construct mental imagesof the activities they had listed during the diabetes task weasked them to think about the activities they had plannedand to indicate how ldquodetailedrdquo and ldquostrongrdquo their mentalimages of these activities were (1 frac14 not at all 7 frac14 veryPetrova and Cialdini 2005) These two items were aver-aged to form an ease-of-imagining index (a frac14 84) Lastparticipants provided demographics and were debriefedand dismissed


First we used a two-way ANOVA to examine feelingsof optimism as a function of cultural background (AsianAmerican European American) and frame (initiator re-sponder) As expected and consistent with the results ofthe prior studies the interaction was significant (F(1 170)frac14 1156 p lt 01) Among European Americans optimismwas greater for those who were in the initiator conditionand primed to focus on their own actions (M frac14 560 SD frac1499) compared to those who were in the responder condi-tion and primed to focus on the situations they would face(M frac14 512 SDfrac14 114 F(1 170) frac14 546 p lt 05) The re-verse was true for Asian American participants those inthe responder condition (M frac14 549 SD frac14 98) were moreoptimistic than were those in the initiator condition (M frac14491 SD frac14 99 F(1 170) frac14 593 p lt 05) Neither maineffect was significant (Fslt 1 NS)

Second to determine if the ease with which participantscould imagine their recovery-oriented activities mediatesthe interactive effect of culture and frame on optimismwe analyzed the ease-of-imagining index using a 2



(culture Asian American European American) 2(frame initiator responder) ANOVA For the EuropeanAmerican participants those who were in the initiator con-dition (M frac14 589 SD frac14 90) versus the responder condi-tion (M frac14 532 SDfrac14 142) more easily imagined theirplanned recovery activities (F(1 170) frac14 563 p lt 05)The reverse was true for Asian American participantsthough this result was marginally significant (MInitiator frac14498 SDInitiator frac14 123 vs MResponder frac14 554 SDResponder frac14133 F(1 170) frac14 369 p lt 06)

Next we used a bootstrap analysis (10000 resamplesPROCESS model 8) to test for moderated mediation Wepredicted optimism using frame (initiator frac14 0 responder frac141) as the independent variable cultural background(European American frac14 0 Asian American frac14 1) as themoderator and the ease-of-imagining index as the medi-ator Supporting our prediction the confidence interval forthe estimated indirect effect did not include zero suggest-ing moderated mediation (b frac14 49 SE frac14 18 95 CI [1889]) Additional analyses of the conditional indirecteffects at both levels of the moderator (cultural back-ground) revealed that our significant mediation result heldfor both European Americans (b frac14 ndash25 SE frac14 12 95 CI[ndash51 ndash05]) and Asian Americans (b frac14 24 SE frac14 1395 CI [01 52])

These results replicate the pattern of optimism findingsfrom study 2 When facing a health challenge EuropeanAmericans who adopted an initiator (rather than responder)frame reported greater optimism whereas AsianAmericans who adopted a responder (rather than initiator)frame reported greater optimism But further this samepattern applied to the ease with which participants couldimagine the activities and behaviors they planned to under-take to address their health challenge (the contrast forAsian Americans however was only marginally signifi-cant) Importantly moderated mediation analyses revealedthat the increased optimism was driven by the ease withwhich one could imagine oneself addressing the healthchallenge

If in our studies participants have greater optimism be-cause they can more easily imagine themselves undertakingthe steps needed to recover as our theory and study 4rsquos find-ings suggest limiting their capacity to conjure mentalimages should attenuate our effects Study 5 tested this ideaA second contribution of study 5 was to examine partici-pantsrsquo preference for more challenging therapy programs animportant behavioral indicator of optimism rather than ask-ing them directly how optimistic they would feel

STUDY 5 MANIPULATING EASE OFIMAGINING

The primary objective of study 5 was to provide furtherevidence of our proposed ease-of-imagining mechanism

via moderation Similar to study 1 Asian American andEuropean American participants thought about being ser-iously injured in the future and considered how they wouldaddress this health challenge However prior to this taskhalf of the participants were asked to remember specificvisual information throughout the study suppressing theirvisual memory capacity (Jiang et al 2016) and hinderingtheir ability to imagine future activities The other halfwere encouraged to imagine and visualize prior to the in-jury task

Subsequently in our target task participants indicatedtheir preference between two physical therapy programsthat differed in difficulty and the extent to which onewould need to make strong consistent progress in order forthe therapy to be effectivemdasha preference that reflects par-ticipantsrsquo optimism about their recovery process This pref-erence measure served as our key dependent variableAccording to our proposed theoretical model the inter-active effect of culture and frame on optimism is driven bythe ease with which people can imagine the process of get-ting better Thus if ease of imagining the recovery processis indeed the underlying mechanism we should expect asignificant culture-by-frame interaction on our dependentvariable in the facilitated imagining condition but thisinteraction should be attenuated in the suppressed imagin-ing condition


Participants were 244 European Americans (Mage frac143686 111 females) and 186 Asian Americans (Mage frac143141 75 females) They were recruited from EuropeanAmerican and Asian American MTurk panels told that theresearchers were interested in understanding how peopledeal with illnesses or injury and paid $100 for participat-ing The study used a 2 (ethnicity European AmericanAsian American) 2 (imagining capacity suppressedaugmented) 2 (frame initiator responder) between-subjects design

In this study participants were presented with the sameinjury scenario initiator (vs responder) frame manipula-tion and activity-generating task used in study 1However before participants read the scenario we manip-ulated their ability to generate imagery when completingthe injury scenario task following procedures used in Jianget al (2016) Participants were randomly assigned to oneof two conditions wherein their imagining capacity was ei-ther facilitated or suppressed In the facilitated imaginingcondition we first told participants to practice generatingmental imagery by imagining themselves driving a car Wetold them to close their eyes imagine this scene in theirmind and describe it These participants were then pre-sented with the injury scenario and target activity-generating task



In the suppressed imagining condition participants wereexposed to a purported memory task that involved memo-rizing a visual stimulus They were shown a 5 5 gridwith an X in some of the cells asked to remember whichcells were marked and told they would need to recreatethe grid at the end of the session Participants were thenpresented with the injury scenario and target activity-generating task By occupying participantsrsquo visuospatialworking memory with unrelated visual imagery (Jianget al 2016) this task was designed to dampen their cap-acity to generate new imagery during the target activity-generating task Notably as prior work has shown that thistask does not affect participantsrsquo capacity to encode pro-cess or recall visual information more generally (Jianget al 2016 716) it should deter ease of imagining but notimpede other aspects of visual processing

After participants had read the injury scenario and con-sidered what to do to recover from the injury we showedthem two different physical therapy programsmdashanldquoadvanced pace programrdquo and a ldquomoderate pace pro-gramrdquomdashand asked them to indicate their preference be-tween them Participants were told that the advancedprogram requires more hours and is more difficult than themoderate program They were also told that the advancedprogram offers the best results only for those who are ableto keep up by making strong consistent progress whereasthe moderate program would offer better results for thosewho are not able to do so Participants then told us whichprogram they would be more likely to choose using a six-point scale (1 frac14 definitely the moderate program 6 frac14 def-initely the advanced program)

To examine the effectiveness of our imagining capacitymanipulation we then asked participants to report the easewith which they had formed self-related mental pictureswhen thinking about the activities they planned to engage into help them recover from their injury (1 frac14 not at all 9 frac14 alot) Then after some filler questions participants provideddemographic information and were debriefed and dismissed


Our imagining capacity manipulation check was submit-ted to a full 2 (ethnicity European American AsianAmerican) 2 (imagining capacity suppressed facili-tated) 2 (frame initiator responder) ANOVA Asexpected the results revealed a significant main effect ofimagining capacity condition (F(1 422) frac14 946 p lt 01)Participants reported greater ease of imagery generationwhen thinking about activities if they were in the facili-tated (M frac14 713 SDfrac14 140) rather than suppressed im-agery capacity condition (M frac14 664 SDfrac14 182) AlsoEuropean Americans (M frac14 712 SDfrac14 169) reportedgreater ease of imagery generation than Asian Americans(M frac14 666 SDfrac14 157 F(1 422) frac14 820 p lt 01) Noother effects were significant

We conducted a 2 2 2 ANOVA to examine partici-pantsrsquo therapy program preferences as a function of their ethni-city (Asian American European American) imaginingcapacity condition (facilitated suppressed) frame condition(initiator responder) and all interactions As expected thethree-way interaction was significant (F(1 422) frac14 769 p lt01) Only one other effect was significant in the modelparticipants whose capacity for imagining was facilitated (M frac14435 SDfrac14 146) rather than suppressed (M frac14 396SDfrac14 163) preferred the more advanced physical therapy pro-gram (F(1 422)frac14 504 plt 05)

To understand the nature of the three-way interactionwe conducted separate analyses of participants who hadtheir capacity to imagine facilitated and suppressed usingethnicity (Asian American European American) framecondition (initiator responder) and the interaction of thesetwo variables as predictors Supporting our proposedmodel the results revealed that for participants in thefacilitated imagining condition only the ethnicity-by-frame interaction was significant (F(1 191) frac14 838 p lt01 other Fslt 15 NS) Asian Americans more stronglypreferred the advanced therapy program if they had a re-sponder (M frac14 450 SDfrac14 116) rather than initiator frame(M frac14 385 SDfrac14 156 F(1 191) frac14 399 p lt 05) whereasEuropean Americans showed a greater preference for theadvanced therapy program if they had an initiator (M frac14473 SDfrac14 142) rather than responder frame (M frac14 416SDfrac14 154 F(1 191) frac14 453 p lt 05) Also in line withour proposed model there was not a significant ethnicity-by-frame interaction (nor any significant main effects) forparticipants in the suppressed imagining condition (MAsian

AmericanInitiator frac14 402 vs MAsian AmericanResponder frac14 405MEuropean AmericanInitiator frac14 365 vs MEuropean American

Responder frac14 415 Fslt 15 NS)Together the results of study 5 provide further support

for our prediction that the interactive effect of culture andframe on optimism is driven by ease of imagining A stron-ger preference for the more difficult advanced therapy pro-grammdasha preference that reflects greater optimism aboutonersquos recovery processmdashwas exhibited by AsianAmericans who adopted a responder (vs initiator) frameand European Americans who adopted an initiator (vs re-sponder) frame However this interactive effect of cultureand frame on therapy program preference emerged onlywhen participantsrsquo ability to imagine the activities theymight undertake to overcome their injury was facilitatedWhen participantsrsquo ability to imagine was suppressed cul-ture and frame did not affect therapy program preferences

STUDY 6 TESTING THE FULLCONCEPTUAL MODEL

Building upon the findings of study 5 study 6 againexamines decision making in the domain of health



However in this case we examined participantsrsquo responsesto a marketing communication and manipulated framesusing the wording in this communication Second ratherthan use participantsrsquo ethnicity or nationality as an indirectindicator of their independence-interdependence we useda direct measure of self-views providing convergent valid-ity Study 6 also offers a more comprehensive test of theinterrelationship among the variables in our model byexamining in one study the interactive effects of cultureand frame on the ease of imagining implementing a healthsolution optimism about this solution and intentions toimplement the solution

Last study 6 sought to rule out alternative explanationsfor our observed effects and provide a test of theory speci-ficity Namely one might argue that the ability of cultureand frame to enhance peoplersquos optimism about recoveringcould be driven by general processing fluency processinginvolvement or ease of imagining in general (eg the easewith which one can imagine experiencing the health chal-lenge rather than as we predict the ease with which onecan imagine overcoming the health challenge) Thus wemeasured these constructs in study 6 To test the specificityof our account we also tested if the interactive effect ofculture and the frame one adopts when facing a healthchallenge impacts peoplersquos optimism about things otherthan their health Because our theory specifically relatesthe interactive effect of culture and frame to peoplersquos opti-mism about recovering from their health challenge we pre-dicted that the interaction of these constructs would notaffect general optimism or optimism about non-health-related topics (eg finances or the environment)

Study 6 was conducted in a major metropolitan areashortly after torrential rains and severe flooding We pre-sented university students living in the affected area withinformation about illness-causing agents that can be pre-sent in and around flood waters (eg parasites typhoidmold cholera) told them about a vaccine that could boosttheir immune systems and protect against these health haz-ards and asked them about their intention to obtain thisvaccine if it were made available through the universityrsquoshealth clinic Schools colleges and public transportationin the region were closed when the flooding began and weadministered our study at a local university after classesresumed At the time of the study the floodwaters had yetto recede in many parts of the region and local newsreports were still warning residents about the dangers offloodwaters (including flood-related illnesses)


Two hundred fifty-seven students (Mage frac14 2225 145 fe-male) were recruited from an undergraduate subject pooland all received course credit for participating Among ourrespondents were 53 European Americans 73 Hispanics69 East Asians 26 South Asians 21 African Americans 6

Middle Easterners and 9 who identified as some otherethnicity

As a cover story participants were told that the purposeof the survey was to get studentsrsquo opinions about how theuniversityrsquos clinic might address health threats caused bythe recent flooding First participants read a mock ldquoCDCFact Sheetrdquo which was developed using information fromthe CDC and other government websites The fact sheettold them about the various health risks and illness-causingagents spread by floodwaters Several health threats com-mon after flooding were described including communic-able diseases spread by contaminated water (eg typhoidand cholera) illnesses from parasites and mosquitoes anddangers caused by exposure to mold and mildew

Next participants were told that the universityrsquos healthcenter was considering obtaining a vaccine that strengthensonersquos immune system against flood-related illnesses andthat the health center wanted to gauge studentsrsquo interest inthis vaccine We subsequently presented them with an ad-vertisement for a vaccine called Immunasil (see the webappendix) In reality the Immunasil vaccine is fictitiousand we developed the marketing communication shown toparticipants The message mentioned the health threatsassociated with flooding disasters described the vaccineand discussed both the benefits and potential side effects ofthe product According to the message the vaccine wasdeveloped specifically for victims of hydrological disastersand can boost the bodyrsquos immune system and reduce theseverity of and chances of contracting flood-related ill-nesses The side effects mentioned were pain burning andswelling at the injection site headaches muscle pain andjoint pain and nausea A picture of the product was shownand its biochemical makeup was described

Importantly the text of the message was manipulated sothat either initiator or responder language was used forsome key phrases In the initiator condition for examplethe text indicated ldquoAct now to protect yourselfmdashget vacci-natedrdquo ldquoHow will you act to address this health threatrdquoand ldquoWhen considering what actions to take after the floodconsider Immunasilrdquo In responder conditions on the otherhand these passages read ldquoRespond now to protect your-selfmdashget vaccinatedrdquo ldquoHow will you react to address thishealth threatrdquo and ldquoWhen considering how to respondafter the flood consider Immunasilrdquo

After reading the message about Immunasil participantswere asked how likely they would be to get the vaccinationif it were offered by the universityrsquos health center (1 frac14 notat all likely 7 frac14 very likely) Next we asked them how op-timistic they were about the vaccinersquos ability to help themaddress flood-related health problems they might experi-ence Adapting the four optimism items (a frac14 92) fromstudy 2 to the current setting we asked participants theirperceptions of the probability that the vaccine would helpthem get better quickly (1 frac14 low probability 7 frac14 highprobability) the speed of their recovery with the vaccine



(1 frac14 slow 7 frac14 fast) the extent to which the vaccine wouldmake them feel they could beat the challenges of flood-related illnesses (1 frac14 not at all 7 frac14 very much) and thechance the vaccine would enable them to maintain a posi-tive healthy outlook (1 frac14 very low 7 frac14 very high)

Participants then completed measures indicating howeasily they could imagine both getting the vaccine (vaccineease-of-imagining index a frac14 95) and suffering from aflood-related illness (illness ease-of-imagining index a frac1490) These measures asked ldquohow hard is itrdquo ldquohow difficultis itrdquo and ldquohow much do you struggle when tryingrdquo to im-agine or visualize yourself taking the step of getting vacci-nated and to imagine or visualize yourself experiencing orfacing a flood-related illness respectively (1 frac14 not at all 9frac14 very all items reverse-scored Jiang et al 2014)Participants then indicated the extent to which they feltprocessing fluency and involvement when considering thepossibility of getting vaccinated For processing fluencythey completed two items indicating how difficult or easythe vaccine information was to ldquoprocessrdquo and ldquounderstandrdquo(1 frac14 difficult 7 frac14 easy a frac14 85 Lee and Aaker 2004)For involvement they told us how involved they felt whenprocessing this information (1 frac14 not at all 7 frac14 veryLabroo and Lee 2006)

We also asked participants how optimistic they feltabout other aspects of their lives They reported their gen-eral feelings of optimism using five items from theRevised Life Orientation Test (1 frac14 I disagree a lot 5 frac14 Iagree a lot a frac14 77 Carver et al 2010) ldquoIf something cango wrong for me it willrdquo (reverse-scored) ldquoIrsquom optimisticabout my futurerdquo ldquoI hardly ever expect things to go mywayrdquo (reverse-scored) ldquoI rarely count on good things hap-pening to merdquo (reverse-scored) and ldquoOverall I expectmore good things to happen to me than badrdquo Participantsalso indicated their optimism about their financial futures(a frac14 80) and global warming (a frac14 64) using measuresadapted from the five items used to measure general opti-mism For example to measure optimism about globalwarming one item asked participants if they were optimis-tic about reducing global warming

After reporting their feelings of optimism participantsused a seven-point scale to complete two items that measuredindependence (a frac14 60) and two items that measured inter-dependence (a frac14 61 adapted from Singelis et al 1995) Forindependence they indicated their agreement with the self-descriptions ldquoOne should live onersquos life independently ofothersrdquo and ldquoWhat happens to me is my own doingrdquo Forinterdependence they indicated their agreement with the self-descriptions ldquoI feel good when I cooperate with othersrdquo andldquoI hate to disagree with others in my grouprdquo (1 frac14 stronglydisagree 7 frac14 strongly agree) Finally participants completedsome demographic questions guessed the purpose of thestudy and were debriefed (eg alerted that this vaccine wasfictitious) and dismissed None correctly guessed the studyrsquosgoals nor detected our deceptions


We formed an interdependence-independence index bycomputing the difference between participantsrsquo scores onthe interdependence and independence subscales (Hollandet al 2004) such that larger scores indicated greater ten-dencies toward interdependence We then examined ourthree key dependent variables ease of imagining gettingvaccinated optimism about the vaccinersquos ability to helpthem address their health challenge and intention to getthe vaccine

According to our theory the interaction between frame(ie initiator vs responder) and interdependence-independence should influence the ease with which peoplecan imagine themselves getting vaccinated which shouldin turn influence their optimism that the vaccine will helpthem overcome their health challenge which should inturn influence their likelihood of getting the vaccineSpecifically our model predicts a first-stage interaction be-tween frame condition and interdependence-independencesuch that an initiator (vs responder) frame leads to greaterease of imagining oneself taking the step of getting vacci-nated (and consequently greater optimism that the vaccinewill help them overcome their health threat and greaterlikelihood of getting the vaccine) when one is high in inde-pendence but that a responder (vs initiator) frame leads togreater ease of imagining oneself taking the step of gettingvaccinated (and consequently greater optimism that thevaccine will help them overcome their health threat andgreater likelihood of getting the vaccine) when one is highin interdependence To test this conceptual model we con-ducted a moderated serial mediation analysis (10000resamples) using PROCESS and the procedures outlined inHayes (2015) In the model estimated by this analysisframe condition (responder frac14 0 initiator frac14 1) was themanipulated independent variable the vaccine ease-of-imagining index was the first mediator vaccine optimismwas the second mediator vaccination intentions was thedependent variable and interdependence-independencewas the measured moderating variable The analysisrevealed the following results (see figure 1)

First there was a significant frame condition byinterdependence-independence interaction on vaccine easeof imagining (bfrac14 ndash97 95 CI [ndash124 ndash70])Specifically adopting an initiator (vs responder) framehad a significantly negative influence on the ease withwhich one could imaging getting the vaccine wheninterdependence-independence was one standard deviationabove the mean (bfrac14 ndash177 95 CI [ndash257 ndash97]) butadopting an initiator (vs responder) frame had a signifi-cantly positive influence on the ease with which one couldimagine getting the vaccine when interdependence-independence was one standard deviation below the mean(bfrac14 228 95 CI [149 307]) In other words a re-sponder (vs initiator) frame led to significantly greater



ease of imagining oneself getting vaccinated when one washigh in interdependence but an initiator (vs responder)frame led to significantly greater ease of imagining oneselfgetting vaccinated when one was high in independenceSecond ease of imagining getting vaccinated had a signifi-cant positive influence on peoplersquos optimism that the vac-cine would help them address their health challenge (b frac1420 95 CI [13 26]) and this greater vaccine optimismin turn had a significant positive influence on their inten-tion to get vaccinated (b frac14 75 95 CI [60 91])

Third and importantly the index of moderated medi-ation for the serial indirect effect through both vaccineease of imagining and vaccine optimism was significant(95 CI [ndash20 ndash09]) indicating that the interactive effectof frame condition and interdependence-independence onvaccination intentions was serially mediated by vaccineease of imagining and vaccine optimism Namely the initi-ator (vs responder) vaccine ease of imagining vac-cine optimism vaccination intentions pathway wassignificant and negative when interdependence-independence was one standard deviation above the mean(bfrac14 ndash26 95 CI ndash41 ndash14]) but was significant andpositive when interdependence-independence was onestandard deviation below the mean (b frac14 34 95 CI [1951]) In other words for participants who were high ininterdependence adopting a responder (vs initiator) frame

made them more likely to get the vaccine (and this effectwas serially driven by greater ease of imagining getting thevaccine and greater optimism about the vaccine) for par-ticipants who were high in independence adopting an initi-ator (vs responder) frame made them more likely to getthe vaccine (and this effect was serially driven by greaterease of imagining getting the vaccine and greater optimismabout the vaccine) Together these results confirm the pre-dicted moderated serial mediation

To provide further support for our conceptual model wealso tested several alternative explanations for our effectsease of imagining a flood-related illness processing flu-ency processing involvement general optimism financialoptimism and global warming optimism We analyzedeach in a separate model using the (continuous)interdependence-independence scores frame condition(initiator responder) and the interaction of these two vari-ables as predictors Across these six analyses no effectswere significant (Fslt 22 NS) Thus none of these con-structs could account for our observed effects

In contrast the same analysis (separately) performed onthe vaccine ease of imagining vaccine optimism and vac-cination intentions variables revealed the predicted signifi-cant frame condition by interdependence-independenceinteraction (vaccine ease of imagining F(1 253) frac14 5013p lt 001 vaccine optimism F(1 253) frac14 6356 p lt 001

FIGURE 1

THE MEDIATING EFFECT OF EASE OF IMAGINING VACCINATIONS ON VACCINE OPTIMISM AND VACCINATION INTENTIONS AS AFUNCTION OF INTERDEPENDENCE-INDEPENDENCE

NOTEmdashNumbers in parentheses indicate standard errors indirect effect of frame condition (initiator vs responder) on vaccination intentions via both mediators is

b frac14 26 (CI [41 14]) at one standard deviation above the mean of the interdependence-independence scale and b frac14 34 (CI [19 51]) at one standard deviation

below the mean of the interdependence-independence scale



vaccination intentions F(1 253) frac14 3191 p lt 001)Replicating the results of the moderated serial mediationspotlight analyses revealed that the simple effect of the ini-tiator (vs responder) frame manipulation was significant atone standard deviation above the mean ofinterdependence-independence (vaccine ease ofimagining bfrac14 ndash171 SE frac14 40 p lt 001 vaccine opti-mism bfrac14 ndash119 SE frac14 23 p lt 001 vaccination inten-tions bfrac14 ndash121 SE frac14 34 p lt 001) and at one standarddeviation below the mean of interdependence-independence(vaccine ease of imagining bfrac14 216 SE frac14 39 p lt 001vaccine optimism bfrac14 123 SE frac14 22 p lt 001 vaccinationintentions bfrac14 143 SE frac14 33 p lt 001) No main effectswere significant in any of these three analyses (Fslt 1 NS)

Study 6 shows that the effects we predict hold for inten-tions to use a health product a downstream variable be-yond optimism In the aftermath of regional floodingaffected college students who were high in interdepend-ence were more likely to indicate an intention to get vacci-nated if the Immunasil message used responder (vsinitiator) language whereas those high in independencewere more likely to do so if the Immunasil message usedinitiator (vs responder) language This same patternapplied to their feelings of optimism regarding the vaccineand the ease with which they could imagine getting vacci-nated to stay healthy Our moderated serial mediation ana-lysis also revealed that the interactive effect of self-viewand frame influences ease of imagining the process of get-ting the vaccine and in turn optimism about the vaccineand intentions to get vaccinated

GENERAL DISCUSSION

Optimism fuels health and recovery yet we still knowlittle about how and when people experience greater opti-mism when confronted with a health challenge To tacklethis question we ran six studies in the lab and field (withover 1300 participants) and uncovered significant culturaldifferences in how optimism was cultivated In cultureswhere the interdependent (vs independent) self is morehighly accessible individuals adopting a responder (vs ini-tiator) frame when facing a health challenge were more op-timistic about their recovery (studies 2 4 and 6) madedecisions that reflected this greater optimism (studies 1 5and 6) anticipated feeling greater energy (study 2) anddemonstrated stronger physical endurance (study 3) Theseresults held for people facing various health challenges(ie cancer diabetes flood-related illness and traumaticinjury) both imagined and real in both single-country andcross-country samples Further these results persistedacross dependent measuresmdashfrom self-reported optimismto preferences for remedial health programs preventativetreatments and vacations to intentions to follow a doctor-recommended diet plan Importantly these effects were

driven by the ease with which participants imagined the re-covery process as indicated by both mediation (studies 4and 6) and moderation (study 5) analyses Together theseresults enrich our theoretical understanding of when andhow optimism can be cultivated and highlight optimismrsquosimportance to consumer behavior But also we forge yetidentified connections across seemingly disparate literaturedomains including streams addressing cultural patterns inthinking styles (Masuda et al 2008) fit effects (Avent andHiggins 2003 2006) and generation of mental imagery(Jiang et al 2014 Markus and Ruvolo 1989 Taylor et al1998)

Our findings also address recent calls to advance con-sumer welfare (Mick et al 2012) and to help consumersachieve better health outcomes (Bublitz et al 2010Goldberg 2008) Although prior social psychological re-search has revealed that optimism can benefit physicalhealth (Scheier and Carver 1985 Taylor et al 1992) re-search has been largely silent on its effects Our researchlays the groundwork for a roadmap for building optimismin the face of a health challenge and further adds to the ex-tant well-being literature by offering novel insights into theimportance of culture frames and mental imagery whenencouraging consumers to make helpful health-relatedjudgments and decisions For instance by showing how apositive outlook can be best achieved across cultures ourfindings provide further evidence challenging the notionthat autonomy and independence are indispensable univer-sal prerequisites for well-being (Markus and Schwartz2010) It is often assumed that people are at their bestmdashmotivated satisfied with life healthymdashwhen they havefreedom from external forces and influences (eg self-determination theory dissonance theory reactance theory)but this assumption may be more relevant for some peoplethan others For Westerners generally and Americans inparticular autonomy and self-determination are treasuredideals People from cultures that value an interdependentself-view however are subject to a different set of corebeliefs and assumptions regarding such needs

This research also advances our understanding of theemerging literature that shows how a personrsquos state ofmind can help achieve positive health outcomes Thoughframes are transitory they can influence vital physiologicalprocesses and shape responses to inputs and stimuli peopleencounter For example the stomachrsquos hormonal responseto eating can differ depending on whether one adopts an in-dulgent rather than sensible eating frame (Crum et al2011) Relatedly when people believe that stress is benefi-cial rather than debilitating they have more moderate cor-tisol responses to stressful situations (Crum et al 2013)Our studies are added evidence that a personrsquos frame dur-ing critical periods can have important potentially life-saving effects on their health We aim to contribute to thisbody of work by identifying a particular frame dimensioninitiator versus responder and illuminating how it can



differentially impact both subjectively experienced andphysiologically grounded health-related outcomes acrosscultures

Further the current research makes important theoreticalcontributions to the mental imagery literature by sheddinglight on why culture moderates the effectiveness of initi-ator versus responder frames Although prior research hasshown that engaging in process-oriented imagining can beadaptive and beneficial for goal attainment (Hayes-Rothand Hayes-Roth 1979 Markus and Ruvolo 1989 Niemiecet al 2010 Taylor et al 1998) prior research divergeswith regard to the frame that one should adopt when under-taking such imagining Whereas some research suggeststhat people who imagine the future should focus on the in-dividual and her or his own potential (person-focused initi-ator frame Markus and Nurius 1986 Markus and Ruvolo1989 Niemiec et al 2010) other research suggests peopleshould focus on the future situations they will face andtheir responses to these challenges (situation-focused re-sponder frame Hayes-Roth and Hayes-Roth 1979 Phamand Taylor 1999 Taylor et al 1998) Thus by showingthat each of these mental simulation frames can be optimaldepending on the cultural background of the personenvisioning the process needed to recover from a healthchallenge our research offers insights that could help rec-oncile these conflicting findings to identify when and whyit would be more beneficial to adopt one process-orientedframe over the other

From a practical perspective our findings also offerguidance for organizations and individualsmdashincludinghealth care providers and specialists counselors policymakers and health-oriented businessesmdashwho wish to com-municate with consumers about health-related matters Asone example the names and slogans chosen by marketersfor health-related products or services (eg the iFit Act fit-ness tracker vs the ReAct trainer machine) may triggerone frame or the other and our research suggests that couldaffect consumersrsquo resulting optimism The imagery under-lying wording and phrases used in communication mightalso prompt one or the other frame For instance whenfaced with a health challenge we are often urged to ldquograbthe bull by the hornsrdquo and ldquoact on our thoughts andinstinctsrdquo or at other times told to ldquowait and see what hap-pensrdquo and ldquobe ready to react to whatever comes your wayrdquoSimilarly promotional materials for health-related prod-ucts and services may contain initiator-focused phrases(eg ldquoact nowrdquo or ldquoyour actionsrdquo) or responder-focusedphrases (eg ldquorespond nowrdquo or ldquoyour reactionsrdquo) Ourwork suggests that if one fails to consider a personrsquos cul-tural background when making these types of recommen-dations or when designing marketing stimuli one mayinadvertently hinder that personrsquos ability to maximize theiroptimism

Finally the results of our studies point toward paths forfuture research One avenue is to examine how different

types of mental simulation might moderate the observedeffect of ease of imagining on optimism or other importantgoal-related outcomes Though our research examines theeffects of two process-oriented imagining frames (as suchframes are generally adaptive and beneficial for goal at-tainment Hayes-Roth and Hayes-Roth 1979 Markus andRuvolo 1989 Niemiec et al 2010 Taylor et al 1998)other types of mental simulation also exist And prior workhas shown that not all types of mental simulation areequally effective for helping people attain their goals andregulate their behavior Indeed fantasizing (Kappes et al2013 Oettingen 1996) painful ruminations (Horowitz1976 Silver et al 1983) and outcome-focused mental sim-ulations (Taylor et al 1998) have all been shown to inter-fere with goal pursuit and achievement Thus one questionthat future research could explore is whether greater easeof imagining under these circumstances would instead en-hance the maladaptive nature of these forms of mentalsimulation and therefore reduce positive outcomes likeoptimism

Optimism has been shown to be a cornerstone of suc-cessful recovery in the face of a health challenge (Scheierand Carver 1985 Taylor et al 1992) However how tobest cultivate that optimism is much less understood par-ticularly across cultures The present research aims to posi-tively impact consumer welfare by anchoring on optimismand showing that how people can best cultivate it during ahealth crisis depends on the degree to which their culturalbackground encourages them to consider their actions inlight of specific situations (vs their own actions regardlessof the situation) Our findings highlight that there is not asingle universal path to achieving optimism and that onersquosculture plays an important role in determining which pathis likely to be the most effective and fruitful With this per-spective our work seeks to fuel research streams focusedon improving peoplersquos livesmdashin this case by offeringnovel insights about how those facing health challengescan most effectively maintain an optimistic healthyoutlook

DATA COLLECTION INFORMATION

The first and second authors completed the analysesStudy 1 data were collected in September 2016 via the on-line subject pool MTurk by research assistants at theStanford GSB Behavioral Lab under the direction of thesecond and third authors Study 2 data were collected inApril 2013 by C Chen and E Garbinsky under the super-vision of the third author Study 3 data were collected inOctober through December 2015 by M Haupt at theStanford GSB Behavioral Lab under the supervision of thethird author Data for study 4 were collected in May 2010at both the Stanford GSB under the supervision of the thirdauthor and by K Lee at the University of Sydney under



the supervision of the first author Study 5 data were col-lected via the online subject pool MTurk in May 2016 byL Agnew at the Stanford GSB Behavioral Lab under thesupervision of the first and third authors Study 6 data werecollected in October 2016 by research assistants at theUniversity of Houston under the supervision of the secondauthor

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Agrawal Nidhi Geeta Menon and Jennifer Aaker (2007)ldquoGetting Emotional about Healthrdquo Journal of MarketingResearch 64 (February) 100ndash13

Avnet Tamar and E Tory Higgins (2003) ldquoLocomotionAssessment and Regulatory Fit Value Transfer from lsquoHowrsquoto lsquoWhatrsquordquo Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 39(September) 525ndash30

mdashmdashmdash (2006) ldquoHow Regulatory Fit Affects Value in ConsumerChoices and Opinionsrdquo Journal of Marketing Research 43(1) 1ndash10

Bayer Ute and Peter M Gollwitzer (2005) ldquoMindset Effects onInformation Search in Self-Evaluationrdquo European Journal ofSocial Psychology 35 (3) 313ndash27

Briley Donnel A Robert S Wyer Jr and En Li (2014) ldquoADynamic View of Cultural Influence A Reviewrdquo Journal ofConsumer Psychology 24 (4) 557ndash71

Bublitz Melissa G Laura A Peracchio and Lauren G Block(2010) ldquoWhy Did I Eat That Perspectives on Food DecisionMaking and Dietary Restraintrdquo Journal of ConsumerPsychology 20 (3) 239ndash58

Carver Charles S Michael F Scheier and Suzanne CSegerstrom (2010) ldquoOptimismrdquo Clinical PsychologyReview 30 (November) 879ndash89

Cesario Joseph Heidi Grant and E Tory Higgins (2004)ldquoRegulatory Fit and Persuasion Transfer From lsquoFeelingRightrsquordquo Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 86(3) 388ndash404

Choi Incheol Minkyung Koo and Jong An Choi (2007)ldquoMeasurement of Cultural Thinking Stylesrdquo Personality andSocial Psychology Bulletin 33 (5) 691ndash705

Cousins Steven D (1989) ldquoCulture and Self Perception in Japanand the United Statesrdquo Journal of Personality and SocialPsychology 56 (1) 124ndash31

Crum Alia J William R Corbin Kelly D Brownell and PeterSalovey (2011) ldquoMind over Milkshakes Mindsets Not JustNutrients Determine Ghrelin Responserdquo Health Psychology30 (4) 424ndash29

Crum Alia J Peter Salovey and Shawn Achor (2013)ldquoRethinking Stress The Role of Mindsets in Determining theStress Responserdquo Journal of Personality and SocialPsychology 104 (4) 716ndash33

Dahl Darren W Eileen Fischer Gita Johar and Vicki Morwitz(2014) ldquoMeaningful Consumer Researchrdquo Journal ofConsumer Research 41 (1) iiindashv

Goldberg Marvin (2008) ldquoAssessing the Relationship betweenTobacco Advertising and Promotion and Adolescent

Smoking Behavior Convergent Evidencerdquo in Handbook ofConsumer Psychology ed Curtis Hagvedt Paul Herr andFrank Kardes New York Psychology Press 933ndash57

Haidt Jonathan and Judith Rodin (1999) ldquoControl and Efficacy asInterdisciplinary Bridgesrdquo Review of General Psychology 3(4) 317ndash37

Hayes Andrew F (2015) ldquoAn Index and Test of LinearModerated Mediationrdquo Multivariate Behavioral Research50 (1) 1ndash22

Hayes-Roth Barbara and Frederick Hayes-Roth (1979) ldquoACognitive Model of Planningrdquo Cognitive Science 3 (4)275ndash310

Holland Rob W Ute-Regina Roeder Rich Van Baaren Aafje CBrandt and Bettina Hannover (2004) ldquoDonrsquot Stand So Closeto Me The Effects of Self-Construal on InterpersonalClosenessrdquo Psychological Science 15 (May) 237ndash42

Horowitz Mardi Jon (1976) Stress Response Syndromes NewYork Jason Aronson

Ji Li-Jun Kaiping Peng and Richard E Nisbett (2000) ldquoCultureControl and Perception of Relationships in theEnvironmentrdquo Journal of Personality and SocialPsychology 78 (5) 943ndash55

Jiang Yuwei Rashmi Adaval Yael Steinhart and Robert S WyerJr (2014) ldquoImagining Yourself in the Scene The InteractiveEffects of Goal-Driven Self-Imagery and Visual Perspectiveson Consumer Behaviorrdquo Journal of Consumer Research 41(2) 418ndash35

Jiang Yuwei Gerald J Gorn Maria Galli and AmitavaChattopadhyay (2016) ldquoDoes Your Company Have the RightLogo How and Why Circular-and Angular-Logo ShapesInfluence Brand Attribute Judgmentsrdquo Journal of ConsumerResearch 42 (5) 709ndash26

Kappes Heather Barry Eesha Sharma and Gabriele Oettingen(2013) ldquoPositive Fantasies Dampen Charitable Giving WhenMany Resources Are Demandedrdquo Journal of ConsumerPsychology 23 (1) 128ndash35

Keller Punam A and Donald R Lehmann (2008) ldquoDesigningEffective Health Communications A Meta-Analysis ofExperimental Resultsrdquo Journal of Public Policy andMarketing 27 (2) 117ndash30

Kosslyn Stephen Michael (1976) ldquoCan Imagery BeDistinguished from Other Forms of Internal RepresentationEvidence from Studies of Information Retrieval TimesrdquoMemory amp Cognition 4 (3) 291ndash7

Kuhnen Ulrich Bettina Hanover and Benjamin Schubert (2001)ldquoThe Semantic Procedural Interface Model of the Self TheRole of Self-Knowledge for Context-Dependent VersusContext-Interdependent Modes of Thinkingrdquo Journal ofPersonality and Social Psychology 80 (3) 397ndash409

Labroo Aparna A and Angela Y Lee (2006) ldquoBetween twobrands A goal fluency account of brand evaluationrdquo Journalof Marketing Research 43 (3) 374ndash85

Lee Angela Y and Jennifer L Aaker (2004) ldquoBringing the Frameinto Focus The Influence of Regulatory Fit on ProcessingFluency and Persuasionrdquo Journal of Personality and SocialPsychology 86 (2) 205ndash18

Lee Angela Y and Aparna A Labroo (2004) ldquoThe Effect ofConceptual and Perceptual Fluency on Brand EvaluationrdquoJournal of Marketing Research 41 (2) 151ndash65

Lorig Kate Anita Stewart Philip Ritter Virginia GonzalezDiana Laurent and John Lynch (1996) Outcome Measuresfor Health Education and Other Health Care InterventionsThousand Oaks CA Sage



Mandel Naomi Petia K Petrova and Robert B Cialdini(2006) ldquoImages of Success and the Preference forLuxury Brandsrdquo Journal of Consumer Psychology 16 (1)57ndash69

Markus Hazel R and Shinobu Kitayama (1991) ldquoCulture and theSelf Implications for Cognition Emotion and MotivationrdquoPsychological Review 98 (2) 224ndash53

Markus Hazel R and Paula Nurius (1986) ldquoPossible SelvesrdquoAmerican Psychologist 41 (9) 954ndash69

Markus Hazel R and Ann Ruvolo (1989) ldquoPossible SelvesPersonalized Representations of Goalsrdquo in Goal Concepts inPersonality and Social Psychology ed Lawrence A PervinHillsdale NJ Erlbaum 211ndash41

Markus Hazel R and Barry Schwartz (2010) ldquoDoes Choice MeanFreedom and Well-Beingrdquo Journal of Consumer Research37 (2) 344ndash55

Massara Francesco Sandra S Liu and Robert D Melara (2010)ldquoAdapting to a Retail Environment Modeling ConsumerndashEnvironment Interactionsrdquo Journal of Business Research 63(7) 673ndash81

Masuda Takahiko Phoebe Ellsworth Batja Mesquita JanxinLeu Shigehito Tanida and Ellen Veerdonk (2008) ldquoPlacingthe Face in Context Cultural Differences in the Perception ofFacial Emotionrdquo Journal of Personality and SocialPsychology 94 (3) 365ndash81

Mayer John D and Yvonne N Gaschke (1988) ldquoThe Experienceand Meta-Experience of Moodrdquo Journal of Personality andSocial Psychology 55 (1) 102ndash11

Mick David Glen Simone Pettigrew Cornelia Pechmann andJulie L Ozanne (2012) ldquoOrigins Qualities andEnvisionments of Transformative Consumer Researchrdquo inTransformative Consumer Research for Personal andCollective Well-Being ed David Glen Mick SimonePettigrew Cornelia Pechmann and Julie L Ozanne NewYork Taylor and FrancisRoutledge 3ndash24

Miele David B Daniel C Molden and Wendi L Gardner (2009)ldquoMotivated Comprehension Regulation Vigilant versusEager Metacognitive Controlrdquo Memory and Cognition 37(6) 779ndash95

Monga Alokparna Basu and Deborah Roedder John (2007)ldquoCultural Differences in Brand Extension Evaluation TheInfluence of Analytic versus Holistic Thinkingrdquo Journal ofConsumer Research 33 (4) 529ndash36

Morris Michael W and Kaiping Peng (1994) ldquoCulture andCause American and Chinese Attributions for Social andPhysical Eventsrdquo Journal of Personality and SocialPsychology 67 (6) 949ndash71

Mourey James A Daphna Oyserman and Carolyn Yoon (2013)ldquoOne without the Other Seeing Relationships in EverydayObjectsrdquo Psychological Science 24 (9) 1615ndash22

Niemiec Christopher P Richard M Ryan and Edward L Deci(2010) ldquoSelf-Determination Theory and the Relation ofAutonomy to Self-Regulatory Processes and PersonalityDevelopmentrdquo in Handbook of Personality and Self-Regulation ed Rick H Hoyle Oxford UK Wiley-Blackwell 169ndash91

Oettingen Gabriele (1996) ldquoPositive Fantasy and Motivationrdquo inThe Psychology of Action Linking Cognition and Motivationto Behavior ed Peter M Gollwitzer and John A Bargh NewYork Guilford 236ndash59

Oyserman Daphna and Hazel Rose Markus (1990) ldquoPossibleSelves in Balance Implications for Delinquencyrdquo Journal ofSocial Issues 46 (2) 141ndash57

Park Ji Kyung and Deborah Roedder John (2014) ldquoI Think ICan I Think I Can Brand Use Self-Efficacy andPerformancerdquo Journal of Marketing Research 51 (2)233ndash47

Petrova Petia K and Robert B Cialdini (2005) ldquoFluency ofConsumption Imagery and the Backfire Effects ofImagery Appealsrdquo Journal of Consumer Research 32 (3)442ndash52

Pham Lien B and Shelley E Taylor (1999) ldquoFrom Thought toAction Effects of Process versus Outcome Based MentalSimulations on Performancerdquo Personality and SocialPsychology Bulletin 25 (2) 250ndash60

Reed Geoffrey M Margaret E Kemeny Shelley E Taylor andBarbara R Visscher (1999) ldquoNegative HIV-SpecificExpectancies and AIDS-Related Bereavement as Predictorsof Symptom Onset in Asymptomatic HIV-Positive GayMenrdquo Health Psychology 18 (July) 354ndash63

Ruvolo Ann Patrice and Hazel Rose Markus (1992) ldquoPossibleSelves and Performance The Power of Self-RelevantImageryrdquo Social Cognition 10 (1) 95ndash124

Ryan Richard M and Edward L Deci (2000) ldquoSelf-Determination Theory and the Facilitation of IntrinsicMotivation Social Development and Well-BeingrdquoAmerican Psychologist 55 (1) 68ndash78

Scheier Michael F and Charles S Carver (1985) ldquoOptimismCoping and Health Assessment and Implications ofGeneralized Outcome Expectanciesrdquo Health Psychology 4(3) 219ndash47

Schroder Kerstin E E Ralf Schwarzer and Wolfgang Konertz(1998) ldquoCoping as a Mediator in Recovery from CardiacSurgery Psychology and Health 13 (1) 83ndash97

Sherman Steven J Robert B Cialdini Donna F Schwartzmanand Kim D Reynolds (1985) ldquoImagining Can Heighten orLower the Perceived Likelihood of Contracting a DiseaseThe Mediating Effect of Ease of Imageryrdquo Personality andSocial Psychology Bulletin 11 (1) 118ndash27

Silver Roxane L Cheryl Boon and Mary H Stones (1983)ldquoSearching for Meaning in Misfortune Making Sense ofIncestrdquo Journal of Social Issues 39 (2) 81ndash101

Singelis Theodore M Harry C Triandis Dharm P S Bhawukand Michele J Gelfand (1995) ldquoHorizontal and VerticalDimensions of Individualism and Collectivism ATheoretical and Measurement Refinementrdquo Cross-CulturalResearch 29 (3) 240ndash75

Taylor Shelley E and Joelle I Broffman (2011) ldquoPsychosocialResources Functions Origins and Links to Mental andPhysical Healthrdquo Advances in Experimental SocialPsychology 44 (1) 1ndash57

Taylor Shelley E Margaret E Kemeny Lisa G AspinwallStephen G Schneider Richard Rodriguez and MarkHerbert (1992) ldquoOptimism Coping PsychologicalDistress and High-Risk Sexual Behavior among Men atRisk for Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS)rdquoJournal of Personality and Social Psychology 63 (3)460ndash73

Taylor Shelley E Lien B Pham Inna D Rivkin and David AArmor (1998) ldquoHarnessing the Imagination MentalSimulation Self-Regulation and Copingrdquo AmericanPsychologist 53 (April) 429ndash39

Thompson Edmund R (2007) ldquoDevelopment and Validation ofan Internationally Reliable Short-Form of the Positive andNegative Affect Schedule (PANAS)rdquo Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 38 (March) 227ndash42



Tversky Amos and Daniel Kahneman (1973) ldquoAvailability AHeuristic for Judging Frequency and Probabilityrdquo CognitivePsychology 5 (2) 207ndash32

US Cancer Statistics Working Group (2014) United StatesCancer Statistics 1999ndash2011 Incidence and Mortality Web-Based Report Atlanta GA US Department of Health andHuman Services Centers for Disease Control andPrevention and National Cancer Institute

Weisz John R Fred M Rothbaum and Thomas C Blackburn(1984) ldquoStanding Out and Standing In The Psychology ofControl in America and Japanrdquo American Psychologist 39(9) 955ndash69

Wyer Jr Robert S (2004) Social Comprehension andJudgment The Role of Situation Models Narratives andImplicit Theories Mahwah NJ Lawrence ErlbaumAssociates

Wyer Jr Robert S Iris W Hung and Yuwei Jiang (2008)ldquoVisual and Verbal Processing Strategies in Comprehensionand Judgmentrdquo Journal of Consumer Psychology 18 (4)244ndash57

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who adopt an initiator frame (how will I act regardless ofthe situations I encounter) versus responder frame (howwill I react to the situations I encounter) are more optimis-tic about their recovery and that the converse is true forpeople with an interdependent cultural backgroundFurther these effects on optimism are driven by the extentto which individuals can easily imagine their recovery pro-cess We also show that this greater optimism is reflectedin peoplersquos health-related decisions and leads to beneficialhealth outcomes including greater anticipated energy andphysical endurance stronger preferences for more inten-sive physical therapy and physically strenuous leisure andincreased intentions to use doctor-recommendedtreatments

Through this research we hope to contribute theoretic-ally to a number of literatures including consumer behav-ior mental imagery and framing For instance althoughprior research has found that imagining the processesinvolved in reaching a goal can facilitate goal attainment(Hayes-Roth and Hayes-Roth 1979 Taylor et al 1998)various styles of process-oriented imagining have beenstudied in the literature Our work contributes to this litera-ture by exploring when and why it is more beneficial toadopt one of these imagining styles over another In par-ticular we examined the effectiveness of two such stylesmdashone in which imagery in the mind is understood through aperson-focused initiator frame and another in which it isunderstood through a situation-focused responder frame

The present research also contributes to extant literatureby showing that when an individual uses mental imagery tofind solutions to a health challenge effective cultivation ofoptimism depends not only on how that person framesimages (initiating actions vs responding to situations) butalso on whether this framing is consistent with the personrsquosculturally influenced self-view (ie independent vs inter-dependent) In particular we show that when there is align-ment between onersquos cultural background and the frameadopted optimism about recovering increases because it iseasier to imagine oneself taking necessary steps to get bet-ter (Jiang et al 2014 Petrova and Cialdini 2005) Althoughprior research has shown that matching effects can havemany consequences (Avnet and Higgins 2003 2006Cesario Grant and Higgins 2004 Lee and Aaker 2004)the present research extends this literature by identifyingboth a novel positive outcome of frame alignment (greateroptimism) and a novel mechanism (ease of imaginingonersquos recovery)

Last the present research answers mounting calls forstudies that increase the range of consumption-relatedbehaviors examined contribute to conversations thatstretch across disciplines (Dahl et al 2014) and fundamen-tally improve consumersrsquo well-being (Goldberg 2008Mick et al 2012) Indeed from an applied perspective ourwork offers insights to help consumers recover after theyexperience a serious health challenge (eg recovering

from surgery battling cancer) and help practitioners topositively impact consumersrsquo health-related decisions

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

Mental Simulation and Framing

The path to health recovery is often complicated by un-certainty and unpredictable circumstances which can ham-per good decisions (Haidt and Rodin 1999) Howeverthese obstacles can be better managed when people im-agine themselves taking steps to overcome their healthchallenge which entails generating picture-like mental rep-resentations (Jiang et al 2014 Kosslyn 1976) This par-ticular type of imagery generation which emphasizessimulating the process needed for reaching a goal isreferred to as process-oriented mental simulation orprocess-oriented imagining (Taylor et al 1998) Thoughother forms of mental simulation (eg fantasizing successpainful ruminations outcome-focused simulating) are oftenunhelpful or even maladaptive (Horowitz 1976 KappesSharma and Oettingen 2013 Oettingen 1996 SilverBoon and Stones 1983 Taylor et al 1998) process-oriented imagining has been shown to be beneficial forgoal attainment (Hayes-Roth and Hayes-Roth 1979Markus and Ruvolo 1989 Taylor et al 1998) This is be-cause imagining the process needed to reach a desired endstate offers a view of a hypothetical reality that transcendsthe here and nowmdashproviding a platform for envisioningpossibilities anticipating emotional states building motiv-ation exploring onersquos own potential and ultimately plan-ning for the future effectively (Markus and Nurius 1986Oyserman and Markus 1990 Pham and Taylor 1999Ruvolo and Markus 1992 Taylor et al 1998)

Extant literature however also suggests that there aredifferent styles of process-oriented imagining that peoplemight adopt when envisioning the future (eg when imag-ining the process of recovering from a health challenge)First some research suggests that people might benefitfrom accepting and embracing the uncontrollableever-changing nature of long-term health recovery bydeveloping situation-focused if-then contingency plans(Hayes-Roth and Hayes-Roth 1979 Taylor et al 1998)Another perspective though is that those on the road to re-covery should focus internally emphasizing their own abil-ities and strengths when planning thereby bolstering self-confidence (Niemiec Ryan and Deci 2010) Thus priorresearch has variously touted styles of process-orientedimagining that fit both the former situation-focused ap-proach and the latter person-focused approach for imagin-ing onersquos future (Markus and Ruvolo 1989 Taylor et al1998) However what remains unclear is when and why itmight be more beneficial to adopt one of these imaginingstyles over the other when facing a health challenge













































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Documents

Cultivating Optimism: How to Frame Your Future during a