UMD Theses and Dissertations

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/3

New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a given thesis/dissertation in DRUM.

More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.

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Author: search.filters.author.Klein, KristenSubject: search.filters.subject.goals

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    The Augmentation Effect: When Cost Enhances the Perceived Benefit of Extreme Means
    (2011) Klein, Kristen; Kruglanski, Arie W; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    In the present research, I introduce a new type of means under goal systems theory (Kruglanski et al., 2002): a costly means, which is instrumental to a focal goal but detrimental to alternative goal(s). An attributional inference similar to the augmentation effect (Kelley, 1971) may occur for costly means, suggesting that because they are detrimental to alternative goal(s), they must be especially instrumental to a focal goal. Moreover, individuals under high (vs. low) commitment to this focal goal may perceive a costly means as less extreme. Findings from Study 1 provide evidence for both hypotheses, and Study 2 showed that alternative goal primes lead to perceptions of costly means as more extreme. These findings recommend the integration of rational choice and goal systems theories, provide evidence for the augmentation effect as a heuristic tool, and highlight potential interventions to combat extremist cognition and behavior.