The influence of implicit anger primes on effort mobilization

This thesis investigates the influence of implicit affect on effort mobilization in cognitive tasks. More specifically, this thesis focuses on the impact of implicit anger on effort mobilization. Although the psychological literature counts numerous studies exploring motivation processes and the impact of affective states on motivation, the majority of research has focused on the directional aspect of motivation, neglecting a second aspect of motivation: its intensity. Based on the Implicit-Affect-Primes-Effort model (IAPE, Gendolla, 2012), this thesis investigates the influence of implicit affect on effort mobilization. This model predicts that implicit anger stimuli, as implicit happiness stimuli, should activate knowledge about performance ease, resulting in experiences of lower subjective demand, which influences effort according to motivational intensity theory's predictions on resource mobilization (Brehm & Self, 1989). Based on the IAPE model (Gendolla, 2012), this thesis presents a series of four studies investigating the impact of implicit anger on effort mobilization