Nonconscious Affective and Physiological Mediators of Behavioral Decision Making

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，每五个过早死亡的人中就有两个与不健康的、最终可以改变的行为选择有关。尽管有良好的意图，人们在中年生活方式改变的尝试往往失败，铺平了道路，增加癌症风险和其他昂贵的和限制生命的慢性疾病。这项研究的总体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，定义为每天或几乎每天重复的健康行为决定。一种创新的生活方式改变的螺旋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，不仅为新采用的健康行为带来无意识的动机拉动，而且还以增加该行为的后续积极情绪产量的方式重塑关键的生物心理社会资源，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不同地创造无意识的认知和情感过程，这些过程介导行为决策;（2）确定生物心理社会资源，这些资源调节健康行为与其积极情绪产量之间的联系，并反过来为该行为创造无意识动机;以及（3）测试无意识动机是否塑造日常行为决策，从而促进积极情绪，进一步增强无意识动机的螺旋式上升动力。研究1和2采用3组实验设计，同时进行行为和心理生理测量，比较和对比积极情绪与身体快乐之后的行为决定，针对无意识动机（研究1）的中介机制，并扩大认知（研究2）。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）的可修改资源是否会提高健康行为的积极情绪产量，以及对无意识动机和随后的日常行为决策的好处。这项基础研究计划将重塑公共卫生干预措施，并释放隐藏的机会，以大幅降低癌症和其他昂贵的慢性病的发病率。

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.