research

People want to lead healthy, fulfilling lives. Thus, there are myriad policies and public recommendations (e.g., federal dietary guidelines, policies to regulate smoking) promoting behaviors that benefit people in the long run. Nevertheless, people struggle with behavioral change and suffer from preventable deaths (e.g., poor diet and tobacco use, Mokdad et al., 2004). To address these issues, my work examines how people motivate themselves and others to obtain valued long-term goals. Specifically, I have focused on three questions:

  1. How do people pursue their long-term goals in the face of immediate obstacles?
  2. What mental tools do people have to navigate the challenges during goal pursuit?
  3. How can motivation science be leveraged for motivating and regulating others?

Overcoming Immediate Obstacles

Self-control—the prioritization of long-term goals over immediate temptations—is implicated in important outcomes (e.g., well-being, financial success, positive social relations). Historically, self-control has been studied as an isolated single decision: success is defined as preference for the goal-consistent option and abstinence from indulgences, such as a dieter choosing an apple over a candy bar.

My work challenges this status quo. A key challenge of self-control in everyday life is that people face repeated self-control conflicts. Eating a single candy bar does not ruin a diet; it is the repeated pattern of doing so that puts the higher order goal in jeopardy. In repeated decisions over time, beyond abstinence, people can also opt for moderation—indulging when doing so is harmless or may even sustain goal pursuit. My ongoing work seeks to understand when, why and among whom abstinence versus moderation is more effective and preferred.

Relevant papers

  • Le, P.Q., Scholer, A.A., & Fujita, K. (2024). The role of conflict representation in abstinence and moderation in self-control. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 126(6), 947–977. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspa0000381
  • Fujita, K., Lapka, S.P., & Le, P.Q. (in press) Lay beliefs about willpower and abstinence in self-control. In E. R. Hirt (Ed.), Handbook of Motivation and Social Psychology. Elgar Publishing.
  • Le, P.Q., Fujita K., Lile, J., & Scholer, A.A. (under review). A trade-off framework of abstinence and moderation in self-control. Invited review following accepted proposal at Current Directions in Psychological Science.
  • Lapka, S.P., Le, P.Q., Xu, M., & Fujita, K. (in prep). Lay people conceptualize self-control as abstinence.
  • Le, P.Q., Fujita, K., Berkman, E.T., & Scholer, A.A. (in prep). Goal moralization promotes preference for abstinence in self-control and public policy.

Mental Tools to Regulate the Self

To optimize performance, people must recognize the various challenges during goal pursuit and flexibly apply tools to address them. For example, to practice self-control, people must consider the broader goals rather than local rewards; to , people must be sensitive to immediate demands. Thus I have examined a variety of mental tools people have to promote self-regulation.

Relevant papers

  • Le, P.Q., Saltsman, T.L., Seery, M.D., Ward, D., Kondrak, C.L., & Lamarche, V.M. (2019). When a smaller self means manageable obstacles: Spontaneous self-distancing predicts divergent effects of awe during a subsequent performance stressor. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 80, 59-66. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2018.07.010
  • Fujita, K., Le. P.Q., Scholer, A.A., & Miele, D.B. (2024). The metamotivation approach: Insights into the regulation of motivation and beyond. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 18(2), Article e12937. https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.12937
  • Le, P.Q., Nguyen, T., Scholer, A.A., & Fujita, K. (in press). Beliefs about using construal level to modulate regulatory scope. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
  • Le, P.Q., Stanczak, O.J., Hildebrand, L.K., Wallace, L.E., Berkman, E.T., & Fujita, K. (under review). A case study for optimizing research paradigms: The within-subjects effect of temporal distance on language abstraction. Preprint: https://osf.io/9uyh8_v1.
  • Ross, J., Nguyen, T., Le, P.Q., Scholer, A.A., & Fujita, K. (under review). Beliefs about the motivational benefits of positive and negative feedback in goal pursuit.
  • Le, P.Q., Wang, J., & Fishbach, A. (in prep) Goal harmony eases goal transitions.

Motivating and Regulating Others

I am working on translating behavioral science to real-world interventions. For example, I have contributed to developing a novel text-messaging smoking cessation protocol for low SES smokers—a group that is generally non-responsive to most treatments. My colleagues and I are also working on narrative interventions to promote pro-environmental behaviors (e.g., promote a vegeterian diet and sustainable farming practices). In addition, I am examining implications of motivation science for effective policy-making and communication.

Relevant papers

  • Le, P.Q., & Fujita, K. (2025). Matching construal level to regulatory scope in persuasion. In J.D. Teeny, A. Luttrell, and R.E. Petty (Eds.), The Handbook of Personalized Persuasion: Theory and Application. Taylor & Francis, Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003380511
  • Le, P.Q., Smith, B.J., Nguyen, T., Wilson, S., Cheung, B., Fujita, K., & Berkman, E.T. (in prep). Motivational messages to quit smoking: Comparing high-level construal and downregulation strategies.
  • Dillman-Hasso, N., Le, P.Q., Shaffer-Morrison, C.D., Fujita, K., & Wilson, R. (in prep). Using narratives to promote goal reflection and pro-environmental behavioral intentions.
  • Le, P.Q., Libby, L.K., Stewart-Hill, S.A., Ivy, V., & Eibach, R.P. (in prep). Communication functions of storyteller’s mental imagery visual perspective.