The question‐behavior effect suggests that asking people questions about their behavior influences future behavior. We investigated the moderating roles of self‐affirmation (Studies 1–3) and goal difficulty (Study 3). Participants completed questionnaires that included one/no‐prediction question about fruit and vegetable consumption. Some participants completed a self‐affirmation task as part of their questionnaire and all participants received a voucher for free fruit or vegetables. Use of the voucher was the outcome measure in all three studies. Prediction questions involving a difficult/easy to achieve goal resulted in a decrease/increase in voucher use, respectively, while adding a self‐affirmation task attenuated question‐behavior effects. We conclude that framing behaviors as “easy to achieve” increases the effectiveness of question‐behavior effect interventions and that self‐affirmation is effective in avoiding unwanted question‐behavior effects.

中文翻译：

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自我肯定和目标困难作为提问者行为效应的调节者

问题行为效应表明，向人们询问有关其行为的问题会影响未来的行为。我们研究了自我肯定（研究1-3）和目标难度（研究3）的调节作用。参与者完成了问卷调查，其中包括有关水果和蔬菜消费的一项/无预测性问题。一些参与者完成了自我确认任务，作为问卷的一部分，所有参与者都获得了免费水果或蔬菜的优惠券。在所有三项研究中，使用代金券都是结果指标。涉及难以/容易实现目标的预测问题分别导致了凭证使用量的减少/增加，同时增加了自我确认任务，从而减弱了问题的行为效果。