Self-affirmation impacts behavioral intentions but not preferences for delayed outcomes

Numerous studies indicate that focusing on one's important values or attributes, a process known as self-affirmation, facilitates forming intentions to change one's behaviors in self-threatening domains. However, little is known about the mechanisms that underlie these effects. The present study tested the pre-registered hypothesis that self-affirmation increases intentions to change health-relevant behaviors among participants with relatively high health risks as a result of broadening their temporal perspectives. Among participants with, relatively high health risks, self-affirmation indeed led to greater general intentions to increase consumption of fruits and vegetables, but not specific consumption intentions. Furthermore, there was no significant effect of the self affirmation manipulation on temporal perspective, as assessed by a monetary delay discounting task. These findings confirm the beneficial effects of self-affirmation on general intentions to change health-relevant behaviors among those with a relatively high health risk, while drawing further attention to the need to elucidate the underlying psychological mechanisms of self-affirmation. (C) 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.