PLoS ONE
 2020
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0234097
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A large-scale experiment on New Year’s resolutions: Approach-oriented goals are more successful than avoidance-oriented goals

Martin Oscarsson
1
,
Per Carlbring
2
,
Gerhard Andersson
3
et al.

Abstract: Despite the popularity of New Year’s resolutions, current knowledge about them is limited. We investigated what resolutions people make when they are free to formulate them, whether different resolutions reach differing success rates, and whether it is possible to increase the likelihood of a resolution’s success by administering information and exercises on effective goal setting. Participants (N = 1066) from the general public were randomized into three groups: active control, some support, and extended supp… Show more

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Cited by 34 publications

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“…Descriptives. Participant's goals covered a wide range of topics, which were categorized by a research assistant according to the New Year's resolution categories derived by Oscarsson et al (2020): physical health (22%, e.g., "maintain my fitness plan"), work and studies (20%, e.g., "finding a new job"), self-improvement (14%, e.g., "become calmer"), mental health and sleep (12%), hobbies and interests (6%), weight loss (5%), friends and family (5%), eating habits (4%), home environment (3%), consumption (2%), finances (2%), tobacco (2%), engagement (2%), alcohol (2%), and love (1%).…”
Section: Resultsmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Our drop-out rate may pose a problem for internal validity, even though high dropouts are common in studies of New Year’s resolutions (see Norcross et al, 2002; Oscarsson et al, 2020). More dropouts among participants characterized by low levels of conscientiousness and self-control—participants who, as per our results, exhibited large extents of variability—might have contributed to an underestimation of the total variability.…”
Section: Discussionmentioning
confidence: 99%
See 1 more Smart Citation
Exaggerated anticipatory anxiety is common in social anxiety disorder (SAD). Neuroimaging studies have revealed altered neural activity in response to social stimuli in SAD, but fewer studies have examined neural activity during anticipation of feared social stimuli in SAD. The current study examined the time course and magnitude of activity in threat processing brain regions during speech anticipation in socially anxious individuals and healthy controls (HC). Method Participants (SAD n = 58; HC n = 16) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during which they completed a 90s control anticipation task and 90s speech anticipation task.
show abstract
“…Descriptives. Participant's goals covered a wide range of topics, which were categorized by a research assistant according to the New Year's resolution categories derived by Oscarsson et al (2020): physical health (22%, e.g., "maintain my fitness plan"), work and studies (20%, e.g., "finding a new job"), self-improvement (14%, e.g., "become calmer"), mental health and sleep (12%), hobbies and interests (6%), weight loss (5%), friends and family (5%), eating habits (4%), home environment (3%), consumption (2%), finances (2%), tobacco (2%), engagement (2%), alcohol (2%), and love (1%).…”
Section: Resultsmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Our drop-out rate may pose a problem for internal validity, even though high dropouts are common in studies of New Year’s resolutions (see Norcross et al, 2002; Oscarsson et al, 2020). More dropouts among participants characterized by low levels of conscientiousness and self-control—participants who, as per our results, exhibited large extents of variability—might have contributed to an underestimation of the total variability.…”
Section: Discussionmentioning
confidence: 99%
Exaggerated anticipatory anxiety is common in social anxiety disorder (SAD). Neuroimaging studies have revealed altered neural activity in response to social stimuli in SAD, but fewer studies have examined neural activity during anticipation of feared social stimuli in SAD. The current study examined the time course and magnitude of activity in threat processing brain regions during speech anticipation in socially anxious individuals and healthy controls (HC). Method Participants (SAD n = 58; HC n = 16) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during which they completed a 90s control anticipation task and 90s speech anticipation task.
show abstract
“…For instance, over 50% of people failed to achieve their New Year's resolution within three months, and the failure rates increased to 80% across a span of two years (Norcross and Vangarelli 1988). More recent findings showed a similar pattern of results where only 47-59% of participants considered themselves successful in maintaining their New Year's resolution (Oscarsson et al 2020). Such goal failures are even more common in the domain of weight loss, where 83% of dieting patients gained back more weight than they lost (Mann et al 2007;Swanson and Dinello 1970).…”
Section: Goal Pursuitmentioning
confidence: 87%
Exaggerated anticipatory anxiety is common in social anxiety disorder (SAD). Neuroimaging studies have revealed altered neural activity in response to social stimuli in SAD, but fewer studies have examined neural activity during anticipation of feared social stimuli in SAD. The current study examined the time course and magnitude of activity in threat processing brain regions during speech anticipation in socially anxious individuals and healthy controls (HC). Method Participants (SAD n = 58; HC n = 16) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during which they completed a 90s control anticipation task and 90s speech anticipation task.
“…However, surprisingly the intended new years' resolution diminishes by 77% after the first month, with just 19% remaining by the end of the year (46). As suggested by Oscarsson et al Sticking to the new year's resolution is usually linked to the knowledge, environmental support, goals, and the perceived measures of success rate (46). Consistent with this, the finding of the current study shows that the new years' resolution behaviors are linked to the study participant's attitudes (Tables 5 and 6).…”
Section: Discussionmentioning
confidence: 98%
Exaggerated anticipatory anxiety is common in social anxiety disorder (SAD). Neuroimaging studies have revealed altered neural activity in response to social stimuli in SAD, but fewer studies have examined neural activity during anticipation of feared social stimuli in SAD. The current study examined the time course and magnitude of activity in threat processing brain regions during speech anticipation in socially anxious individuals and healthy controls (HC). Method Participants (SAD n = 58; HC n = 16) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during which they completed a 90s control anticipation task and 90s speech anticipation task.
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