TY - JOUR
T1 - Naïve Definitions of Action and Inaction
T2 - A Study of Free Associations Using Natural Language Processing and Top-Down Coding
AU - Sunderrajan, Aashna
AU - Albarracín, Dolores
N1 - Funding Information:
Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse under Award Number DP1 DA048570, the National Institute of Mental Health under Award Number R01MH11847, and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases under Award Number R01A|147487.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Psicothema.
PY - 2021/2
Y1 - 2021/2
N2 - BACKGROUND: Even though the terms "action" and "inaction" have been used to describe objects of attitudes, behaviors, and goals, the meaning of action and inaction for lay people has not been investigated.METHOD: In Study 1, participants were asked to spontaneously generate words and behaviors associated with action or inaction. In Studies 2 and 3, participants were presented with behaviors and asked to report whether each behavior involved agency, effort, and change.RESULTS: Natural language processing of the responses from Study 1 revealed lay conceptualizations included topics related to occurrence, agency, effort, and change. In Studies 2 and 3, simple regressions showed agency, effort, and change correlated with judgments of action and inaction. However, once these predictors were simultaneously entered into a multiple regression, effort captured most of the variance.CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that, even though agency and change are important to the definition of action and inaction, effort is paramount.
AB - BACKGROUND: Even though the terms "action" and "inaction" have been used to describe objects of attitudes, behaviors, and goals, the meaning of action and inaction for lay people has not been investigated.METHOD: In Study 1, participants were asked to spontaneously generate words and behaviors associated with action or inaction. In Studies 2 and 3, participants were presented with behaviors and asked to report whether each behavior involved agency, effort, and change.RESULTS: Natural language processing of the responses from Study 1 revealed lay conceptualizations included topics related to occurrence, agency, effort, and change. In Studies 2 and 3, simple regressions showed agency, effort, and change correlated with judgments of action and inaction. However, once these predictors were simultaneously entered into a multiple regression, effort captured most of the variance.CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that, even though agency and change are important to the definition of action and inaction, effort is paramount.
KW - Action
KW - Inaction
KW - Language processing
KW - Naïve definitions
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U2 - 10.7334/psicothema2020.351
DO - 10.7334/psicothema2020.351
M3 - Article
C2 - 33453731
SN - 0214-9915
VL - 33
SP - 7
EP - 15
JO - Psicothema
JF - Psicothema
IS - 1
ER -