Nonconscious Affective and Physiological Mediators of Behavioral Decision Making

描述（由申请人提供）：美国癌症协会估计，62%的癌症可以通过改变生活方式来预防。事实上，在美国，每五个过早死亡中就有两个与不健康的、最终可以改变的行为选择有关。尽管出发点是好的，但人们试图改变中年生活方式的努力往往以失败告终，从而增加了患癌症的风险，并导致了其他代价高昂、寿命受限的慢性疾病。这项拟议研究的首要目标是调查积极情绪在促进成功的生活方式改变中的作用，生活方式的改变被定义为每天或几乎每天重复的健康行为决定。一个创新的生活方式改变的螺旋式上升模型整合了基础行为和脑科学的多个研究流，将积极情绪定位为关键的活性成分，它不仅为无意识的动机提供了新的健康行为，而且还重塑了关键的生物心理社会资源，以增加该行为随后的积极情绪产出，创造一个自我维持的动态系统。四个严格控制的实验室实验通过针对三个特定目标来测试这个新模型。这些目标是：(1)测试积极情绪和身体愉悦是否以及如何产生调节行为决策的无意识认知和情感过程的差异；(2)识别调节健康行为与其积极情绪产出之间联系的生物心理社会资源，进而为健康行为创造无意识动机；(3)检验无意识动机是否塑造了日常行为决策，而日常行为决策反过来又培养了积极情绪，而积极情绪又进一步增强了无意识动机，形成了一个向上的螺旋动态。研究1和研究2采用三组实验设计，同时采用行为和心理生理测量来比较和对比积极情绪和身体愉悦之后的行为决策，以无意识动机（研究1）和扩展认知（研究2）的中介机制为目标。研究3和4使用2 × 2实验设计来测试积极评价（研究3）和催产素（研究4）的可修改资源是否能提高健康行为的积极情绪产出，并对无意识动机和随后的日常行为决策带来好处。这一基础研究项目将重塑公共卫生干预措施，释放潜在机会，大幅降低癌症和其他代价高昂的慢性病的发病率。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The American Cancer Society estimates that 62% of all cancers could be prevented altogether through lifestyle change. Indeed, two of every five premature deaths in the U.S. can be linked to unhealthy and ultimately modifiable behavioral choices. Despite good intentions, people's attempts at midlife lifestyle change often fail, paving the way to increased cancer risk and other costly and life-limiting chronic conditions. The overarching goal of the proposed research is to investigate the role of positive emotions in facilitating successful lifestyle change, defined as healthy behavioral decisions repeated daily, or near daily. An innovative upward spiral model of lifestyle change integrates multiple streams of research in basic behavioral and brain sciences to position positive emotions as key active ingredients that not only seed nonconscious motivational pulls toward a newly-adopted wellness behavior, but also reshape key biopsychosocial resources in ways that increase the subsequent positive emotion yield of that behavior, creating a self-sustaining dynamic system. Four tightly- controlled laboratory experiments test this new model by targeting three Specific Aims. These aims are: (1) to test whether and how positive emotions and physical pleasures differentially create nonconscious cognitive and affective processes that mediate behavioral decisions; (2) to identify biopsychosocial resources that moderate the link between a wellness behavior and its positive emotion yield, and in turn create nonconscious motives for that behavior; and (3) to test whether nonconscious motives shape daily behavioral decisions, which in turn foster positive emotions that further augment nonconscious motives in an upward spiral dynamic. Studies 1 and 2 use a 3-group experimental design with concurrent behavioral and psychophysiological measures to compare and contrast behavioral decisions that ensue following positive emotions versus physical pleasures, targeting the mediating mechanisms of nonconscious motives (Study 1), and broadened cognition (Study 2). Studies 3 and 4 use a 2 X 2 experimental design to test whether the modifiable resources of positive valuation (Study 3) and oxytocin (Study 4) boost the positive emotion yield of wellness behavior, with attendant benefits for nonconscious motives and subsequent daily behavioral decisions. This program of basic research stands to reshape public health interventions and unlock hidden opportunities to drastically reduce the incidence of cancer and other costly chronic conditions.