The disruption model of inspiration: toward a general model of "being inspired to act"

For many-from prophets and poets to athletes and activists-experiencing inspiration is a fundamental part of the human condition. Specifically, inspiration can be a powerful tool in motivating people to act morally, help other people, and become their best selves. However, despite the power of inspiration to help people fulfill their potential, surprisingly little is known about when and why individuals are actually inspired to action. Drawing from schema incongruity theory and recent conceptualizations of inspiration as a psychological construct, I develop and test a general model of being inspired to act (the disruption model of inspiration). I assert that individuals will be more likely to experience inspiration-that is, feel inspired to act-to the extent that an evoked potential action is perceived as (1) disruptive to the continuity of their current mental schemas (i.e., it forces them to think about things differently), (2) relevant to the fulfillment of their core human motives (i.e., agency, communion, and coherence), and (3) attainable (i.e., they believe they can successfully accomplish the action or actualize the possibility). While this model has implications for theory and research on leadership, social influence, motivation, and other topics of organizational import, I focus on the role of inspiration in the moral domain-specifically related to prosocial behavior. Accordingly, I examine the human experience of inspiration in a survey of U.S. adults, an online experiment, and a field experiment in a Fortune 100 company.

THE DISRUPTION MODEL OF INSPIRATION: TOWARD A GENERAL MODEL OF "BEING INSPIRED TO ACT" by Isaac H. Smith A dissertation submitted to the faculty of The University of Utah in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Business Administration David Eccles School of Business The University of Utah August 2014 Copyright © Isaac H. Smith 2014 All Rights Reserved The University of Utah Graduate School STATEMENT OF DISSERTATION APPROVAL The dissertation of Isaac H. Smith has been approved by the following supervisory committee members: Arthur P. Brief , Chair 5/6/14 Date Approved Kristina A. Diekmann , Member 5/6/14 Date Approved Adam M. Grant , Member 5/6/14 Date Approved Joshua D. Margolis , Member 5/6/14 Date Approved Kristin Smith-Crowe , Member 5/6/14 Date Approved and by William Hesterly , Associate Dean of the David Eccles School of Business and by David B. Kieda, Dean of The Graduate School. ABSTRACT For many-from prophets and poets to athletes and activists-experiencing inspiration is a fundamental part of the human condition. Specifically, inspiration can be a powerful tool in motivating people to act morally, help other people, and become their best selves. However, despite the power of inspiration to help people fulfill their potential, surprisingly little is known about when and why individuals are actually inspired to action. Drawing from schema incongruity theory and recent conceptualizations of inspiration as a psychological construct, I develop and test a general model of being inspired to act (the disruption model of inspiration). I assert that individuals will be more likely to experience inspiration-that is, feel inspired to act-to the extent that an evoked potential action is perceived as (1) disruptive to the continuity of their current mental schemas (i.e., it forces them to think about things differently), (2) relevant to the fulfillment of their core human motives (i.e., agency, communion, and coherence), and (3) attainable (i.e., they believe they can successfully accomplish the action or actualize the possibility). While this model has implications for theory and research on leadership, social influence, motivation, and other topics of organizational import, I focus on the role of inspiration in the moral domain-specifically related to prosocial behavior. Accordingly, I examine the human experience of inspiration in a survey of U.S. adults, an online experiment, and a field experiment in a Fortune 100 company. TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... iii LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................ v LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................. vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................................. vii Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND ..................................... 1 Inspiration as a Psychological Construct ...................................................................... 6 Recognizing Unmet Potential: The Disruption Model of Inspiration ......................... 16 Inspiring Moral Behavior in Others ............................................................................ 44 Summary ..................................................................................................................... 50 2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY................................................................................ 52 Study 1: A Test of the General Model (Survey) ......................................................... 53 Study 2: A Test of the General Model (Online Experiment) ...................................... 70 Study 3: Leadership That Inspires (Field Experiment) ............................................... 79 3 GENERAL DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION ..................................................... 98 Theoretical Contributions ........................................................................................... 99 Limitations and Future Directions ............................................................................ 104 Practical Implications ................................................................................................ 110 Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 112 Appendices A STIMULUS MATERIALS (STUDIES 1 AND 2) ................................................... 115 B WRITING PROMPT MANIPULATIONS (STUDY 2) .......................................... 116 C LEADER PRESENTATION SCRIPT (STUDY 3) ................................................. 117 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................... 120 LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1. The Disruption Model of Inspiration ........................................................................ 23 2. The Relationships Among Disruption, Relevance, and Attainability ....................... 51 3. Results of Confirmatory Factor Analysis ................................................................. 59 4. Simple Slopes for the Disruption x Agency Interaction ........................................... 62 5. Simple Slopes for the Disruption x Communion Interaction .................................... 64 6. The Indirect Effect of Disruption on Prosocial Behavior Through Inspiration ........ 76 LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1. Comparison of Alternative Factor Structures ........................................................... 60 2. Means, Standard Deviations, and Correlations ......................................................... 61 3. Hierarchical Regression Analysis Examining Agency as a Moderator .................... 62 4. Hierarchical Regression Analysis Examining Communion as a Moderator ............ 64 5. Hierarchical Regression Analysis Examining Coherence as a Moderator ............... 65 6. Hierarchical Regression Analysis Examining Attainability as a Moderator ............ 66 7. Hierarchical Regression Analysis Examining 3-Way Interaction ............................ 67 8. Post-Hoc Analysis ..................................................................................................... 69 9. Means and Standard Deviations by Condition .......................................................... 75 10. Means of Manipulation-Check Measures Across Conditions .................................. 91 11. Blood Drive Participation by Condition ................................................................... 93 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS As I reflect on the arduous journey that we aspiring scholars refer to as "writing a dissertation," I am overwhelmed with gratitude for the time, love, support, and guidance that so many have provided along the way. My appreciation is then magnified as I realize that completing a dissertation is not the end of a journey, but the beginning. The hundreds of meaningful interactions-with incredibly intelligent and caring people-that helped make this dissertation possible have simultaneously laid the groundwork for the contributions I hope to make as a future scholar, teacher, husband, and father. It is with this in mind that I wish to acknowledge and express sincere thanks to the many people who have been an important part of not only this dissertation, but also the beginning of my scholarly journey. I will always be indebted to Art Brief for the role he has played in my intellectual development. As chair of my dissertation committee, advisor, mentor, and friend, Art has helped refine and enrich my thinking in a multitude of ways. Our shared taste for interesting research within the moral domain has fueled my passion for scholarship, and our differences related to faith, politics, generation, and even interpersonal style have helped to broaden my perspective. Art not only cared about the quality of my research, but also about me as a person. As his career is nearing its close-and as mine is just beginning-I hope to honor the legacy he has left before me. viii I would also like to thank the other members of my dissertation committee for their invaluable feedback and insight. Kristin Smith-Crowe takes an unusual amount of initiative in behalf of the students she mentors, and I am grateful to have been a frequent beneficiary of her efforts. She has been instrumental in facilitating a number of opportunities that have greatly impacted my experience as a doctoral student for the better, and her influence has improved the quality of my research and my teaching. Likewise, working with, receiving feedback from, and observing the research approach of Tina Diekmann have all contributed to my growth and development-especially in terms of my dissertation. I am also extremely grateful to Adam Grant and Joshua Margolis for serving as external members of my dissertation committee. Their outside perspective and expertise greatly improved the overall quality of this dissertation, and I consider them both model exemplars of the scholar, teacher, and person I hope to become. A large part of my academic development must also be attributed to the many informal mentors with whom I have been privileged to work, such as Gerardo Okhuysen and Karl Aquino. Both invest an immense amount of time to the training and development of students, even when doing so is outside their respective spheres of responsibility. I thank Bill Hesterly for providing the resources necessary to take advantage of a number of academic opportunities that greatly enhanced my development. I would also like to thank my predoctoral-study mentors, such as Kristie Seawright, John Bingham, W. Gibb Dyer, and Paul Godfrey for introducing me to the art of academic research and helping pave my way to a doctoral degree. And I thank Warner Woodworth, for not only the tremendous good he has done in the world himself, but for helping to ix solidify my commitment to conducting research that contributes to making the world a better place. Thank you to all of those who took time from their busy schedules to informally chat with me about my dissertation idea. Thoughts and advice from Bryan Bonner, Adam Galinksy, Tori Higgins, Mark Leary, Harris Sondak, Barry Staw, Ann Tenbrunsel, and Amy Wryzniewski were extremely helpful in turning my abstract ideas into concrete research studies. Thank you to Shai Davidai and Jennifer Savary for their honest critiques at a beach-side restaurant in Tel Aviv. And special thanks to Tim Davis for making Study 3 possible; I quite literally could not have done it without him. I would also like to thank the faculty and students from management (and related) departments who offered feedback on my dissertation research when presented at Cornell University, Marquette University, Miami University, Temple University, University College London, University of Kansas, and University of Washington Bothell. I received useful and insightful comments, many of which helped strengthen the final product. Similarly, I thank my fellow doctoral students at the University of Utah for providing feedback specific to my dissertation, as well as contributing to a collegial and collaborative culture in which we all helped each other develop as scholars. Ekaterina Netchaeva was an ideal officemate for 5 years. It was nice to have an ally in facing all things PhD-student related. Maryam Kouchaki was a tremendous help in driving me to conduct rigorous research; she was always my unofficial student mentor-a role she filled for a number of other students as well. And a big thank you to many other doctoral students-Leif Lundmark, Cameron Verhaal, Mckenzie Rees, Alex Romney, Justin x Wareham, Andrew Soderberg, Julie Seidel, Teng Zhang, David Howe, Josh Ruchty, David Hunsaker, and Nate Meikle-for the meaningful relationships and collaborations Finally, but most importantly, I need to acknowledge my family. I thank my parents, Douglas and Ginny Smith, and my two sisters, Sarah and Abby, for their years of love and support, which perhaps more than anything else has influenced the person I have thus far become. Specifically, many of the sources of inspiration in my life-including several of the stories described in this dissertation-were initially introduced to me by my loving mother. And I will be forever grateful for my dear wife Kelly, who has been a constant source of strength (possibly unbeknownst to her) throughout the many disappointments associated with being a doctoral student, and for my two little boys, Eli and Simon, who amidst the competing demands of scholarship, teaching, and family, remind me every day what is most important in life. CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND "It came. I doubt if we shall ever know more of the process called "inspiration" than those two monosyllables tell us." - C. S. Lewis (Lewis, 1979) Gandhi inspired his fellow citizens to nonviolently struggle for independence in India. Martin Luther King, Jr. inspired thousands to fight for civil rights in the United States. Jack Welch is said to have inspired employees to dream big, leading General Electric to become the world leader in multiple industries. Throughout history, inspiration has often been cited as a powerful tool for driving change and achieving success. Surprisingly, however, as implied by the above epigraph from C.S. Lewis, we know very little about what truly inspires people to action and why. At a psychological level, what is it about a leader, an idea, or a possibility, that inspires one to action? To address this question, I develop a generalized model of being inspired to act, with a specific focus on inspiration in the moral domain as a motivator of prosocial behavior. For example, what inspired Henri Landwirth, a holocaust survivor, to found Give Kids the World-a nonprofit organization dedicated to fulfilling the wishes of children diagnosed with life-threatening illnesses? At the age of 13, Landwirth and his Jewish family were forced into concentration camps during World War II. His father was shot and killed almost immediately, but his mother survived nearly 5 years, until-just weeks before the end of the war-she and 1,000 other female prisoners were set afloat at 2 sea in a large boat rigged with explosives. She presumably died in the explosion. Henri Landwirth himself, however, miraculously survived the terror of multiple death camps, including Auschwitz, Matthausen, and Gusen, as well as an underground work camp where he lived for more than a year without seeing the sun (Landwirth, 1996). After the war, Landwirth fled to America with $20 in his pocket and a sixth-grade education. Over the course of several decades, he worked his way up in the hotel industry-from night clerk and cashier to eventual manager and owner. It was in 1986, as a hotel owner in Orlando, Florida, that Landwirth was approached by a wish foundation asking him to donate a room for a 6-year-old girl named Amy whose dying wish was to meet Mickey Mouse at Disney World. Excited by the possibility of helping grant Amy's wish, and intimately knowing what it was like for a child to stare death in the face, Landwirth gladly agreed. A short time later, however, he was informed that the hotel reservation had been cancelled; it had taken too long to make all of the arrangements for Amy and her family to visit, and Amy had passed away (Glauser, 1999; Landwirth, 1996). "Though I never knew her," Landwirth later explained, "Amy's death became the catalyst for building Give Kids the World and has affected everything in my life since" (Landwirth, 1996, p. 181). The tragedy of Amy's death and her "unfulfilled wish inspired [Landwirth] to make a vow that no child in need would ever be failed again" (Give Kids the World, 2013; italics added). He learned that a vast number of children with life-threatening illnesses similarly wished to visit Disney World, and he was inspired to do everything in his power to help fulfill those wishes. In 1989, he opened the Give Kids the World Village in Central Florida, which has since grown into a 70-acre resort with over 140 3 Villa accommodations where children with life-threatening illnesses and their families can stay for a week, completely cost-free, and visit many of the nearby theme parks. The village itself has entertainment venues and attractions, and it provides meals for free. In partnership with corporations, wish-granting organizations, and thousands of individual volunteers, Give Kids the World has now hosted more than 120,000 families from over 74 countries (Give Kids the World, 2013)-all at zero cost to the families themselves. Thinking back to Amy's unfulfilled wish, Landwirth remarks, "As painful as her loss was, I hoped her parents would someday visit the Village and see what she had inspired for other children, the difference her young life had made" (Landwirth, 1996, p. 186). To a large degree, Landwirth attributes his charitable actions to the moment of inspiration he experienced as Amy's death led him to consider new possibilities-potential actions he could take to bless the lives of thousands of other children in similar circumstances. Currently, we know very little about when and why such experiences of inspiration occur. By increasing our understanding of inspiration, particularly when it influences individuals to do good in the world- to help others, to contribute to society, to make a difference, etc.- scholars can begin to develop and refine theories of inspiration that meaningfully impact individuals' lives. To date, however, beyond generalized descriptions of inspirational and charismatic leaders (e.g., Bass & Avolio, 1994; Bass & Bass, 2008; Shamir, House, & Arthur, 1993), organizational research has only tangentially explored individual experiences of inspiration-which are rarely, if ever, measured or investigated directly. One of the major roadblocks to such theoretical and empirical precision has been the lack of a consistent and reliable definition of what, exactly, inspiration is. Over the past decade, however, building on earlier, qualitative 4 efforts to describe inspiration (e.g., Hart, 1998) and related experiences (e.g., peak experiences; Maslow, 1964), Thrash and Elliot (2003; 2004) have synthesized findings from disparate literatures (e.g., theology, anthropology, psychology, literary criticism) to theoretically derive and empirically support a tractable, tripartite definition of inspiration as consisting of evocation, transcendence, and an approach motivation. By evocation, they mean that inspiration must be evoked by a stimulus object (e.g., an idea, a person, or an act). In other words, partial or full responsibility for feelings of inspiration must be ascribed to an outside object or agent, or to a nonconscious source deep within an individual's being. Transcendence refers to becoming aware of possibilities that transcend the ordinary or mundane-a focus on things that are better or more important than one's previous concerns. An approach motivation pertains to the desire to transmit, express, or actualize a new idea or vision. When all three of these characteristics are present, an individual is experiencing inspiration (Thrash & Elliot, 2003). I adopt Thrash and Elliot's (2003, 2004) conceptualization as a starting point from which to further explore and unpack the experience of inspiration, with a particular focus on what it is about certain ideas, potentialities, and possibilities that inspire people to act. Drawing from a variety of literatures, I develop a general model of being inspired to act, in which I argue that individuals will be more likely to experience inspiration-that is, feel inspired to act-to the extent that an evoked potential action is perceived as (1) disruptive to the continuity of their current mental schemas (i.e., it forces them to think about things differently), (2) relevant to the fulfillment of their core human motives (i.e., agency, communion, and coherence; see Swann & Bosson, 2010), and (3) attainable (i.e., they believe they can successfully accomplish the action or actualize the possibility). 5 I examine this model in multiple contexts, using a variety of cues and stimuli (including the meaning-making capacity of leadership; see, Podolny, Khurana, & Hill- Popper, 2005) as potential sources of inspiration. While the general model I present can be applied broadly to many domains, I specifically examine the model within the moral domain-that is, what inspires individuals to engage in prosocial (e.g., helping) behavior, a form of prescriptive morality (i.e., what people should do; Janoff-Bulman, Sheikh, & Hepp, 2009)? With this research, I offer two primary theoretical contributions. First, by introducing a generalized model of being inspired to act, I help extend research on inspiration from merely defining it to examining specific instances of when it occurs and why, thereby broadening the theoretical scope of inspiration as a human experience. In doing so, I introduce a key mechanism by which inspiration is facilitated (i.e., the disruption of mental schemas) and suggest two important moderating factors (i.e., perceived relevance to core human motives and perceived attainability). Second, this research opens the door to specifically investigating inspiration as a motivational mechanism that can help bridge the gap between moral judgments and moral behavior (see Chiu, Dweck, Tong, & Fu, 1997; Rest, 1983), which has important implications for the promotion of ethical behavior in and of organizations. Taken together, these contributions can help us better understand the conditions most conducive to promoting inspiration, as well as how and why various cues and stimuli can be powerful sources of that inspiration-even to the point of inspiring others to become their best moral selves. 6 Inspiration as a Psychological Construct Inspiration is a human experience with which many, if not most, of us are familiar. Having literal roots in the Latin term spirare, meaning to breathe or to blow (Leavitt, 1997), inspiration has figuratively come to mean "a breathing in or infusion of some idea, purpose, etc. into the mind; the suggestion, awakening, or creation of some feeling or impulse, especially of an exalted kind" (Oxford English Dictionary, Simpson & Weiner, 1989, p. 1036). From its earliest usage to the present, the figurative notion of inspiration has implied an elevated or transcendent experience (sometimes fleeting) wherein a new truth, idea, possibility, or awareness is somehow evoked in an individual's mind and/or heart. Historically, the experience of inspiration has often been associated with the realization and communication of supernatural truths. Ancient Greek poets were said to have been inspired by the divine song of the Muses (9 daughters of Zeus believed to be goddesses over the arts and sciences), receiving hidden truths and the ability to communicate them (Leavitt, 1997). A tradition of inspired poetry even surfaced in the 18th and 19th centuries-William Blake once remarking that his poetry was "dictated to him by angels and spirits" (Leavitt, 1997, p. 20). Other Romantic poets from France and Germany also sought inspiration from God (Abrams, 1953; Weinberg, 1974). From a religious perspective, being inspired with divine truths is central to revelation and prophecy (Heschel, 1962). Many Biblical accounts of Hebrew prophets, for example, are believed to be divinely inspired, reflecting God's will and omniscience (Avni, 1968). In modern usage, inspiration is not an experience exclusive to poets and prophets; the opportunity to experience inspiration-to be inspired-has been extended to all 7 people. Sources of inspiration, moreover, are no longer limited to the supernatural or divine. Painters, writers, and musicians, for example, still figuratively invoke the muse in search of creative inspiration (e.g., McCutchan, 1999), and some individuals seek spiritual inspiration from nature (Fredrickson & Anderson, 1999). At other times, inspiration is received when not being sought at all-as depicted by the proverbial light bulb going on in someone's head while showering. Importantly, inspiration has recently been recognized as an everyday, human experience (Hart, 1998) that has the potential to promote individual well-being by imbuing people's lives with gratitude and purpose (Thrash, Elliot, Maruskin, & Cassidy, 2010a). Over the past 2 decades, scattered interest in the concept of inspiration has surfaced in the organizational and management literatures. Inspiration has been discussed as a component of decision making (e.g., Langely, Mintzberg, Pitcher, Posada, & Saint- Macary, 1995), a source of creativity (e.g., Lampel, Lant, & Shamsie, 2001), an influence tactic (e.g., Falbe & Yukl, 1992; Yukl, Kim, & Falbe, 1996; Yukl & Tracey, 1992), a performance motivator (Grant & Hofmann, 2011), and as a style or dimension of leadership (e.g., Bass & Avolio, 1994; 1995; Bono & Judge, 2004; Shapiro, Boss, Salas, Tangirala, & Von Glinow, 2011; Vinkenburg, van Engen, Eagly, & Johannesen-Schmidt, 2011). However, the specific treatment of inspiration in these cases has exhibited neither a common definition nor a shared theoretical foundation. Langley and colleagues (1995), for example, called for the incorporation of inspiration into decision-making models but acknowledged that they used the term in ignorance (i.e., without a clear conceptual understanding). Other researchers, those who are not interested in examining inspiration specifically, use the term in undefined-and thus unmeasured-ways, like individual 8 inspiration as a source of creativity (Lampel et al., 2001) or apologies that inspire victims to forgive others (Fehr & Gelfand, 2010). The experience of inspiration itself, however, is rarely measured; rather, it is often implied, assumed, or discussed as roughly synonymous with motivation (e.g., Cotton, Shen, & Livne-Tarandach, 2011). For example, the leadership literature, in which the notion of inspiration has perhaps been treated with the most seriousness, includes theories of charismatic and transformational leadership that describe sets of leadership behaviors that are potentially inspiring (e.g., Bass & Avolio, 1994; Bass & Bass, 2008; Shamir et al., 1993)- inspirational motivation being a subscale in the measurement of the latter (e.g., Bass, 1985; Bass & Avolio, 1994). However, these theories focus on broad leadership types, or styles (i.e., what inspiring leaders do, in general), rather than examining specific instances of inspiration per se. Measurement of inspirational leadership is usually based on followers' perceptions of a general set of leader behaviors that might include articulating a vision and encouraging enthusiasm1 (e.g., Joshi, Lazarova, & Liao, 2009). Within these streams of leadership research, individual experiences of inspiration are not investigated directly, which leaves many questions unanswered regarding the actual psychological experience of inspiration. For instance, certainly not all followers will be similarly inspired by an articulated vision and an expression of enthusiasm. Given the same stimulus (e.g., leader), what are the psychological mechanisms that affect when and 1 For example, Joshi, Lazarova, and Liao (2009) recently adapted items from Bass (1985) to measure inspirational leadership with the following six items: my leader excites us with his/her visions of what we may accomplish if we work together as a team, my leader is an inspiration to me, my leader encourages me to express my ideas and opinions, my leader has a sense of mission that he/she transmits to me, my leader makes everyone in the team enthusiastic about the team's assignments, and my leader makes us believe we can overcome anything if we work together as a team. 9 why an individual will be inspired? What is it about a specific vision (or other stimulus) that makes it inspiring-or even uninspiring? Theories of motivation can help begin answering the above questions, but they do not tell the whole story. It is important to note a distinction between motivation and inspiration. Whereas inspiration entails a motivational component (as mentioned above and to be elaborated upon below), not all motivation stems from being inspired. An array of motivations-whether based on needs (e.g., Maslow, 1943), goals (e.g., Locke & Latham, 2002), expectations (e.g., Vroom, 1964), fairness (e.g., Adams, 1965), etc.- might help explain why a given cue or stimulus leads to a given behavior, but theories of motivation alone do not sufficiently address the extent to which a stimulus awakens an individual's understanding or causes them to see possibilities of which they were previously unaware. Given the transcendence component of inspiration, it is reasonable to expect that inspiration as a source of motivation is qualitatively different from other sources of motivation. Its consequences, for example, might be stronger, longer lasting, and/or more meaningful. That said, it is not simply the strength or depth of one's motivation that characterizes inspiration, but the nature of the motivational source as well. Returning to the example of Henri Landwirth, founder of Give Kids the World, a number of theories related to prosocial motivation offer partial explanations for why Landwirth proactively sought to help terminally-ill children. For example, according to the negative-state relief model (Cialdini, Darby, & Vincent, 1973), upon hearing the news that young Amy had passed away before visiting Disney World, Landwirth likely experienced a negative affective state, motivating him to help other similar children in an 10 effort to reduce his negative feelings. Or, a more positive interpretation might be that of the empathy-altruism hypothesis (Batson, 1987; 1991), which would attribute Landwirth's motivation to feelings of empathic concern for terminally-ill children in need, which, in turn, induced a desire to help. Moreover, the "identifiable victim effect" (Schelling, 1968; Small & Loewenstein, 2003) would add that Landwirth was motivated to help because Amy was an identifiable victim and not just a nameless statistic. However, while each of the above explanations might help in understanding Landwirth's initial prosocial motivation, they do not sufficiently explain why the experience caused him to make statements such as, "With Amy's death, the seed that would grow into Give Kids the World had been planted in my heart and soul" (Landwirth, 1996, p. 181). Theories of motivation-and in Landwirth's case, prosocial motivation-help explain the motivation criterion of inspiration, but they fall short when it comes to the transcendence criterion (described in greater detail below). The psychology of inspiration is worthy of study in its own right, because there is something unique about inspiration that helps people see things in new ways, causing them to internalize ideas on a transcendent level. A better understanding of the experience of inspiration may help us understand why Landwirth devoted much of his life and fortune to building Give Kids the World, rather than just sending Amy's family a generous gift basket and sympathy card. In sum, while research on leadership, motivation, and prosocial behavior has examined the motivational and performance outcomes of potentially inspiring cues and/or leader behaviors, the lack of conceptual clarity surrounding "inspiration" as a construct has prevented researchers from focusing specifically on the experience of inspiration per 11 se (for an exception, see O'Grady & Richards, 2010, although they limit their investigation to "divine" inspiration exclusively) and, in particular, when or why inspiration occurs. Recently, however, advancements in social psychological research have led to the formulation of a theoretical definition of inspiration as a psychological construct, paving the way for a more direct examination. Tripartite Definition of Inspiration Although vague conceptions of inspiration have sometimes been used to describe the potentially positive effects of upward social comparisons (e.g., Lockwood & Kunda, 1999; Lockwood, Jordan, & Kunda, 2002), a clear definition of inspiration as a psychological construct had not, until recently, been presented in the literature. Whereas inspiration has typically been narrowly conceptualized within specific content domains (e.g., creativity, religion, etc.), Thrash and Elliot (2003; 2004) have taken a phenomenon-based approach (Sternberg & Grigorenko, 2001)-integrating theoretical perspectives on inspiration from multiple disciplines (e.g., theology, psychology, literary criticism, etc.) and incorporating a lay understanding of the term-to develop a conceptual definition that can be broadly applied. Thrash and Elliot's (2003; 2004) efforts resulted in a tripartite conceptualization of inspiration composed of the following characteristics: evocation, transcendence, and approach motivation. Regarding evocation, inspiration must be evoked by a stimulus object (e.g., an idea, a person, or an act, etc.). In other words, the experience of inspiration cannot be consciously willed into existence (Hart 1998)-a notion captured by sociologist Andrew Metcalfe (1999): 12 Inspiration is received, not attained….When I'm in the shower, for example, safe, enclosed, relaxed, my mind surrendered to the water flowing over me, ideas often occur to me like revelations-clear, whole and unbidden. I cannot force these flashes, yet they occur because I've opened myself to them and because I've been actively pursuing my concerns before the shower. (p. 225) Partial or full responsibility for feelings of inspiration must be ascribed to an outside object or agent, or to a nonconscious source deep within an individual's being. While one can prepare for and even seek inspiration, ultimately, inspiration must be evoked. For example, the untimely death of Amy served as Landwirth's source of inspiration in founding Give Kids the World. Her death evoked an awareness of the possibility that children may pass away before their dying wishes are fulfilled, and that he could potentially help avoid such tragedies. Transcendence refers to becoming aware of possibilities that transcend the ordinary and mundane (Thrash, Maruskin, Cassidy, Fryer, & Ryan, 2010b)-a focus on or connection to things that are better or more important than one's normal preoccupations. Metaphors related to vision-such as illumination and insight-are often used to describe the transcendence component of inspiration (Thrash et al., 2010a). Inspiring experiences cause people to see things in a new light, to connect to a thought, an idea, or a possibility beyond one's usual concerns. Transcendence thus implies a connection-to something beyond the self or greater than the limits of the status quo (Ashforth & Pratt, 2002). In describing character strengths associated with transcendence (e.g., spirituality, appreciation of beauty, gratitude, and hope), Peterson and Seligman (2004) concluded that "…the common theme running through these strengths of transcendence is that each allows individuals to forge connections to the larger universe and thereby provide meaning to their lives" (p. 519). Experiences of inspiration entail 13 transcendent thoughts or feelings that connect an individual to the possibility or awareness of something greater than the ordinary or mundane. Henri Landwirth's vow to fulfill the wish of every dying child who wants to meet Mickey Mouse, for example, gave his life meaning and purpose. Recognizing the possibility of helping children with life-threatening illnesses transcended his life's usual, everyday concerns. The third component of inspiration, approach motivation, refers to the desire to express, transmit, or actualize a new idea, vision, or possibility. Inspiration involves an energizing effect, a re-direction of effort and action (Thrash & Elliot, 2003). For example, consider the action-oriented motivation experienced by a woman upon witnessing the compassionate service of another: It had been snowing since the night before and the snow was a thick blanket on the ground. As we were driving through a neighborhood near where I lived I saw an elderly woman with a shovel in her driveway. I did not think much of it, when one of the guys in the back asked the driver to let him off here….I had assumed that this guy just wanted to save the driver some effort and walk the short distance to his home (although I was clueless as to where he lived). But when I saw him jump out of the back seat and approach the lady, my mouth dropped in shock as I realized that he was offering to shovel her walk for her….I felt like jumping out of the car and hugging this guy. I felt like singing and running, or skipping and laughing. Just being active. I felt like saying nice things about people. Writing a beautiful poem or love song. Playing in the snow like a child. Telling everybody about his deed….My spirit was lifted even higher than it already was. I was joyous, happy, smiling, energized. (Haidt, 2002, p. 3) After witnessing the man's virtuous actions (evocation), the woman described feeling as though her spirit were lifted higher (transcendence) and as if she wanted to jump, run, be active, and emulate the act of virtue she had observed. The experience of inspiration has an energizing effect, instilling a desire to engage, to express, to act (i.e., approach motivation). Henri Landwirth, for example, after his inspiring experience related to Amy's death, was motivated to work tirelessly to fulfill his vision for Give Kids the 14 World: "the months that followed were a whirlwind," he described. "I spent every single day going from one business to another urging people to participate in the foundation" (Landwirth, 1996, p. 183). Evocation, transcendence, and approach motivation-when all three characteristics are present, an individual is experiencing inspiration (Thrash & Elliot, 2003). An aspiring artist might revel in the beauty of a breath-taking landscape and determine to paint a masterpiece. A religious seeker of truth might have a powerful spiritual experience while meditating that motivates a life change. A young college student might read a newspaper article highlighting the goodness of humanity that sparks a desire to volunteer at a local food bank. In each of these examples, a trigger stimulus (i.e., the landscape, the divine, the newspaper article) evoked transcendent qualities, thoughts, or ideas (i.e., beauty, truth, goodness) that resulted in a motivation to actualize or emulate a new idea or vision (i.e., paint, live a spiritual life, volunteer). A number of studies have provided strong support for Thrash and colleagues' conceptualization of inspiration (e.g., Thrash & Elliot, 2003; 2004; Thrash et al., 2010a). For example, using a vivid recall methodology, differences have been demonstrated between individuals' baseline experiences (i.e., recalling representative life experiences) and experiences of inspiration (i.e., recalling personal experiences of inspiration). Compared with their baseline experiences, individuals reported inspiration to involve enhanced meaning and spirituality (transcendence), more passive descriptions of the self in terms of the experience (evidence of evocation), and a greater approach motivation. Similar comparisons to experiences of activated positive affect revealed that inspiring experiences involve higher levels of insight and illumination (transcendence), lower 15 levels of self-responsibility and volitional control over the experience (evocation), but comparable levels of approach motivation (see Thrash & Elliott, 2004). Furthermore, construct validity studies have shown that inspiration fits well into a nomological network of theoretically-related concepts such as behavioral activation system (BAS), intrinsic motivation, creativity, self-determination, and optimism (Thrash & Elliot 2003). Thrash and Elliot (2004) further posit that inspiration is actually a hybrid construct consisting of two component processes: being inspired by and being inspired to. Being inspired by refers to the appreciation and accommodation of a stimulus trigger, whereas being inspired to refers to the motivation to transmit, express, or actualize the qualities or ideas evoked by the stimulus. The evocation and transcendence characteristics of inspiration are associated with being inspired by, while approach motivation is associated with being inspired to. For the purposes of the present research, I will use the term inspiration in reference to the composite tripartite definition (i.e., evocation, transcendence, and approach motivation), consisting of both the by and the to component processes. Specifically, I will examine the role of inspiration-from its sources to resulting behavioral responses-in motivating individuals to action. The Transmission Function of Inspiration Consistent with the tripartite conceptualization, Thrash et al. (2010b) demonstrated that inspiration serves a transmission function-that is, it motivates the transmission of the perceived intrinsic value of evoked and transcendent ideas, qualities, or possibilities: The transmission process may take a variety of forms. One may be inspired to imitate the virtuous aspects of a role model's actions, to record 16 the content of a spiritual revelation, or to actualize a creative idea. Each type of transmission may be conceptualized as a meditational model. (p. 472, italics in the original) Inspiration, as a transmission function, thus becomes the link between ideas or possibilities evoked by an inspiring source and subsequent action by the one who experiences inspiration-action that is intended to express or actualize the idea or possibility. Recognizing Unmet Potential: The Disruption Model of Inspiration Thrash and Elliot's (2003, 2004) conceptualization has helped elucidate and add precision to the definition of inspiration as a psychological construct, but a broader question remains: what leads to inspiration? Thrash and his colleagues have helped us better understand what the experience of inspiration is, but when and why does it happen? The answers to these fundamental questions have broad implications for both theory and practice, potentially providing important insights regarding how to inspire others to action. Adopting Thrash and Elliot's (2003, 2004) conceptualization of inspiration, I focus specifically on the perceived nature and characteristics of ideas, potentialities, and possibilities that inspire people to act. At its core, the notion of being inspired to act implies the identification or recognition of a new possibility or potential action to be undertaken. I use the term action very inclusively, acknowledging that such action can be construed at various levels of abstraction. For example, one might feel inspired by the possibility of being a better friend-the implied action of being a better friend having innumerable behavioral 17 manifestations. In contrast, one might feel inspired to send an encouraging note to a friend-the specific action of note-sending being very concrete. In both instances, however, the individual recognizes the possibility or potential of an action and is inspired to act-if only abstractly, in the case of the former. According to the evocation criterion of inspiration, such an identification or recognition of a possible or potential action must be facilitated by an outside source,2 be it another person, Deity, music, or a beautiful landscape. If an individual's recognition of an evoked potential action is associated with a sense of transcendence and an approach motivation, by definition, the individual experienced inspiration-that is, was inspired to act. The question then becomes, what is it about a given idea, potentiality, or possibility (and associated action) and how it is perceived that will lead to inspiration (i.e., will be experienced as transcendent and result in an approach motivation)? To address this question, I apply a modified version of a conceptual approach advocated by Hackman (2012) for the study of groups. He suggested that scholars studying groups move from a focus on the causes of group outcomes to a focus on the conditions under which groups are most likely to be effective. Since inspiration is experienced based on the perceptions of the individual being inspired, it becomes conceptually muddy to talk about factors external to the individual that cause inspiration to occur, since different people may perceive the same external factors differently. Adopting Hackman's (2012) approach, the relevant questions become (1) what perceived characteristics of a given idea, potentiality, or possibility are most important to inspiring someone to act, and (2) 2 As described by Thrash and Elliot (2003), the source of inspiration can also be intrapsychic, meaning that the source of inspiration comes from deep within the nonconscious self. This type of inspirational source still satisfies the evocation criterion, because the inspiration was not consciously willed into existence; rather, it was evoked by something outside of conscious awareness. Similarly, I acknowledge that intrapscychic mechanisms can serve as a source of being inspired to act. 18 how much of a difference do those perceived characteristics actually make? Drawing heavily from schema incongruity theory-as well as theory and research related to social comparison theory, human motives, transcendent emotions, workplace spirituality, and even music perception-I present a simple, generalized model to address the first question, which sets the stage for empirically testing the second. In the remainder of the current chapter, I develop a disruption model of inspiration, and I present a number of propositions. In Chapter 2, I set forth a series of specific hypotheses and describe the methods by which I test them. Finally, in Chapter 3, I report the results of three empirical studies and discuss their implications for theory, practice, and future research. Transcendence, Schema Incongruity Theory, and Inspiration As mentioned previously, a sense of transcendence is one (if not the) important factor that distinguishes inspiration from other forms of motivation. At the heart of transcendence is a heightened awareness of new ideas or possibilities of elevated importance. Transcendence implies a new understanding of or connection with things more significant than one's ordinary concerns. In the parlance of cognitive psychology, then, being inspired and experiencing a sense of transcendence involves a shift or adjustment to one's cognitive schemas, such that one begins to see things differently, having made new mental connections. Schemas refer to a person's mental maps-organized cognitive structures based on prior knowledge and experience that direct one's information processing and retrieval (Fiske & Linville, 1980). As individuals acquire knowledge and gain experience, they develop certain expectations and attitudes about the world around them and the things in 19 it; these expectations and attitudes are stored as cognitive knowledge structures, which, in turn, influence interpretations and perceptions of future experiences (Crockett, 1988; Fiske & Taylor, 1991). When people are presented with new ideas, events, or even objects that are incongruent with their mental schemas, they seek to reconcile the discrepancy by either integrating the new idea or object into existing schemas (assimilation), or by modifying the structure of schemas themselves to account for the new idea or object (accommodation) (Piaget, 1970). Any schema incongruity thus falls on a continuum, from a negligible schematic interruption requiring very little assimilation, to a major disruption of existing schemas that requires complete accommodation (Mandler, 1982). I posit that the transcendent element of inspiration that broadens people's proverbial horizons and results in illumination or insight is associated with an adjustment to their current mental schemas, following an incongruity. Transcendent experiences of inspiration, however, do not likely fall exclusively within the domain of cognition; inspiration also entails an affective component, as suggested by the common phrase, "I felt inspired." Indeed, a stream of research on transcendent emotions (see Keltner & Haidt, 2003) is beginning to emerge in the literature. Therefore, to account for both the cognitive and affective aspects of inspiration, I draw on Mandler's (1982) theory of schema incongruity to begin developing a model of being inspired to act. Traditionally, schema incongruities that challenge one's assumptions or question one's world views have been shown to have aversive consequences, leading people to experience distress (Festinger, 1957; Heine, Proulx, & Vohs, 2006; Park, 2010). Mandler (1982), however, astutely theorized that people can actually respond favorably to schema 20 incongruities, especially when the incongruity can be resolved in the perceiver's mind, and when the resulting new mental connection has positive implications. According to Mandler (1982), people generally evaluate situations of cognitive congruity (when everything makes sense as expected) as familiar, acceptable, and thus favorable. This favorable evaluation is relatively mild, however, devoid of significant affective intensity or emotionality. Conversely, when faced with schema-incongruent stimuli, people engage in greater cognitive processing and experience physiological arousal and activation of the autonomic nervous system, resulting in higher affective intensity. Then, upon successful assimilation or accommodation, the psychological reward for having successfully resolved the incongruence-combined with the increased affective intensity-results in a more positive and emotionally-laden evaluation of the situation or stimulus than had there been cognitive congruity from the beginning (Mandler, 1982; Meyers-Levy, Louie, & Curren, 1994). Furthermore, Mandler (1982) suggests that favorable reactions to schema incongruities will depend on (1) the nature of the new mental connections, and (2) whether the incongruities can be resolved. First, when the incongruity or disruption leads to a change in a person's schematic structure, a favorable reaction will largely depend on the nature of the new mental connection and the "broader evaluation of the context in which it occurs" (Mandler, 1982, p. 23). For example, learning for the first time about an amazing medical procedure known as a "heterotopic heart transplant" (Konertz, Sheikhzadeh, Weyand, Friedl, & Bernhard, 1988; Roberts, 2009) would be a very different experience for an average individual hearing about it on the evening news versus the mother of a young toddler suffering from cardiomyopathy (i.e., a deterioration of the heart muscle). In a heterotopic 21 heart transplant, rather than removing and replacing the patient's heart, a donor heart is inserted and connected to the blood vessels and chambers of the patient's original heart- literally giving the patient a double heart. In some cases, the donor heart can eventually be removed after the original heart has had time to recover (see Roberts, 2009). This notion of a double heart likely disrupts the way many people think about human anatomy and heart transplants, and after working through it in their minds, they may respond favorably to the schema incongruity, marveling at the wonders of modern science. Importantly, the nature and context of this incongruity would be quite different for a mother being told by a doctor that such a transplant could save her child's life. The more it matters, the more important the context of the schema incongruity is, the stronger the positive reaction to the incongruity is likely to be. However, a new mental connection that is inherently negative (e.g., when one first discovers that the crime rate in his or her local neighborhood is three times higher than previously thought), negative cognitive and emotional reactions to schema incongruities can also result. Therefore, regarding the nature and context of schema incongruities, people will react favorably to the extent that the implications of a disruption are viewed as positively-valenced and carrying a sense of importance. Second, disruption can actually lead to negative, instead of positive, evaluations and emotional reactions if the schema incongruity cannot be resolved in the perceiver's mind. A strong disruption leads to high affective intensity, and "if the accommodation is unsuccessful…the unavailability of an appropriate response to the environment is likely to generate an anxiety experience" (Mandler, 1982, p. 24). Thus, the more likely the schema incongruity can be reconciled or resolved, the more likely one is to react 22 positively. In sum, Mandler's theory argues that schema incongruities will be responded to favorably depending on the nature and context of the incongruity (e.g., is it positively-valenced and important or significant) and whether the incongruity can be resolved in the perceiver's mind. Empirical support for schema incongruence theory is found chiefly in the marketing literature. For example, counter to findings suggesting the importance of brand-congruent marketing efforts (e.g., Misra & Beatty, 1990; Reingen, Foster, Brown, & Seidman, 1984), unexpected and incongruent advertising messages were found to be more memorable (Heckler & Childers, 1992) and more favorable (Lee & Mason, 1999), but only when they were perceived as relevant to the product or message being communicated. Incongruities that were unimportant or seemingly insignificant did not have a positive effect. Other researchers have demonstrated that brand messages with incongruent information did, indeed, lead to more favorable product evaluations, but only up to a point. In the extreme, when brand messaging was incongruent to the point that consumers were purportedly unable to resolve or reconcile the incongruity in their own minds, product and brand evaluations were less favorable (Halkias & Kokkinaki, 2012; Meyers-Levy et al., 1994). Consistent with schema incongruity theory, empirical evidence thus supports the notion that people respond favorably to schema incongruities when the incongruity can be resolved, and when the nature and context of the new mental connection deems it important or significant in some way. Applying the theoretical insights from schema incongruity theory to the psychological experience of being inspired to act, I develop and propose a disruption model of inspiration, composed of disruption, perceived relevance to core motives, and 23 perceived attainability. In terms of inspiring potential actions, a new idea or potential action that is incongruent with an individual's current mental schemas is disruptive in the sense that it forces people to reconcile the new potentiality with his or her prior views of reality. I propose that evoked possibilities and potential actions will be more inspiring to the extent that they disrupt the way one typically thinks about things, leading people to see previously unforeseen possibilities. However, consistent with schema incongruity theory and research, the model also accounts for the importance of the nature and context of the incongruity. As people change previously held assumptions and make new mental connections about things that are significant to them at a fundamental level, they are more likely to experience a sense of transcendence, and thus be inspired (see Figure 1). Note. P = Proposition. Figure 1. The Disruption Model of Inspiration 24 I assert, and further explain below, that when disruptive possibilities are perceived as relevant to one's core human motives specifically, transcendence is more likely to result. Finally, in terms of resolving schema incongruities, I argue that the more attainable a new potential action is perceived to be (either in terms of accomplishing a specific action or progressing toward the goal of that action), the more likely an individual will be able to reconcile the schema incongruity, thus increasing the likelihood of a positive reaction. In short, the disruption model of inspiration predicts that an external cue or stimulus will more likely inspire action to the extent that it evokes a possibility or potential action that is (1) disruptive to mental schemas, (2) perceived as relevant to core human motives, and (3) perceived as attainable. I address these three factors in more detail, below, and explain the theoretical relationships among them. Disruption Applying the concept of schema incongruence (Mandler, 1982) to the psychological experience of inspiration, I define disruption as an interruption to the continuity of one's current mental schemas. I posit that schema disruption-in addition to contributing to greater affective intensity and positive evaluations-can help create a sense of transcendence, as it leads people to see the world with new eyes (or schemas, as it were). I use the term disruption to refer to the extent that an evoked idea, potentiality, or possibility disrupts the continuity or structure of an individual's preconceived ideas or alters the mental frameworks from which they view the world and their place in it. For example, in a qualitative diary study, Rourke (1983) asked participants to record moments of inspiration in a journal over a period of 4 months. The following excerpt 25 from one of her participants reflects a deep sense of disruption and its associated affective intensity: Today I was inspired by [astronomer] Carl Sagan. I experienced in myself an inner stretching. I felt binders [sic] being removed from my mind's eyes. I felt blocks being blown apart and a sudden thrust to move out of myself. I was forced out of a mental set that I had occupied for 37 years. I felt free and warm like a bud being warmed into full bloom. Suddenly, in a flash, I was seeing with different eyes and hearing with different ears. (p. 134) In its strongest form, disruption implies a need for accommodation, moving an individual to forge new mental connections-to make adjustments to mental maps in response to a stimulus. In a weaker form, disruption implies a need for assimilation, integrating new external stimuli into existing mental frameworks. I argue that evoked ideas, potentialities, and possibilities are more likely to inspire individuals to act when they are disruptive-when they either cause people to recognize a previously unforeseen possibility or unmet potential (i.e., make a new mental connection), or remind them of a previous goal or possibility and enable them to see it with a fresh perspective (i.e., integrate with existing mental connections). Evidence suggesting that disruption plays a role in experiences of inspiration can be found in both the literature on transcendent emotions and music perception. First, drawing from the literature on transcendent emotions-that is, emotions that invoke a feeling of connectedness to things greater or more important than the ordinary and mundane-helps demonstrate how disruption relates to the transcendence criterion of inspiration. Keltner and Haidt (2003) describe the transcendent emotions of awe, admiration, and elevation as being activated in response to stimuli that require accommodation (i.e., the strong form of disruption wherein an individual is unable to assimilate a stimulus into current mental structures) and that exhibit vastness, skill, or 26 virtue, respectively. Elevation (Algoe & Haidt, 2009; Haidt, 2003a; 2003b; Schnall, Roper, & Fessler, 2010), for example, is defined as a moral emotion experienced upon witnessing the virtuous act of another that "usually includes a warm and pleasant feeling in the chest and a desire to become a better person, or to lead a better life" (Keltner & Haidt, 2003, p. 205). Experiences of elevation prototypically involve the perception of moral virtue and a need for accommodation (i.e., disruption). Reconsider the previous example of the woman who was inspired by the man who helped shovel an elderly woman's snowy sidewalk: "...when I saw him jump out of the back seat and approach the lady, my mouth dropped in shock as I realized that he was offering to shovel her walk for her" (Haidt, 2002). The woman's description of her "mouth dropping" and her use of the term "in shock" reflect the disruptive nature of the incident, which elevated her awareness to the possibility of emulating the moral goodness she had observed. Such experiences of elevation can be considered one-of many- forms of inspiration, because they are elicited by observing acts of human goodness and displays of virtue (evocation) that induce feelings of being uplifted or ‘elevated' (transcendence) and give rise to a desire to emulate and follow the example of the observed actor (approach motivation). Disruption plays an important role in feeling elevation and experiencing inspiration, by heightening one's physiological arousal (Mandler, 1982), and triggering a sense-making process (Weick, Sutcliffe, & Obstfeld, 2005) wherein an individual more strongly takes that stimulus into consideration. Second, research on music perception also helps demonstrate the role of disruption in experiences of inspiration. Studies have shown that "inspiring" music most often leads to physiological responses, such as the chills and shivers, when full of 27 unexpected harmonies and surprising changes (Sloboda, 1991). In a recent review of the literature, a listener's experience of the chills was found to be most reliably predicted by musical selections that exhibit abrupt shifts in energy-such as sudden volume increases and the entry of new instruments-or that violate a listener's expectations (Nusbaum & Silvia, 2011). Guhn, Hamm, and Zentner (2007), for example, measured participants' self-reported chills, while simultaneously measuring levels of their skin conductance, in response to listening to various musical pieces. They found that subjective measures of chills and actual levels of skin conductance were both higher in response to hearing pieces with musical characteristics including a sudden or gradual increase in volume, an expansion in register, or harmonically or melodically peculiar progressions. The unexpected, sudden, and peculiar nature of inspiring music that elicits chills is consistent with the notion of disruption as an important characteristic of inspiring stimuli.3 As a specific example, the inspiring story of Rachel Beckwith's birthday wish helps to further demonstrate the link between disruption and inspiration. On June 12, 2011, Rachel turned 9 years old. Instead of having a birthday party and asking for presents, she started a webpage through the nonprofit organization ‘charity: water.' "I found out that millions of people don't live to see their 5th birthday," she wrote on her webpage. "And why? Because they didn't have access to clean, safe water, so I'm celebrating my birthday like never before. I'm asking from everyone I know to donate to my campaign instead of gifts for my birthday" (charity: water, 2013a). Rachel set a goal of raising $300, and she asked her friends and relatives to donate $9 each, in place of any gifts she may have received otherwise. As her ninth birthday came and went, she was 3 It is important to note, however, that these examples of inspiring music relate more specifically to being inspired "by," and not necessarily to being inspired "to." 28 slightly disappointed to have only raised a total of $220. She told her mom that she would try harder the next year. Tragically, she would never have that chance. Just over a month later, 9-year-old Rachel was riding in a car with her family when two trucks collided, initiating a 13-car pileup on an interstate highway in Bellevue, Washington. One of the trucks smashed into Rachel's car, severing her spinal cord. After 3 days on life support, Rachel died-the only fatality from the accident (charity: water, 2013b; Elkin, 2011; Kristoff, 2011). As news of Rachel's unselfish birthday wish and heartbreaking death began to spread, complete strangers started to visit her webpage and make contributions. A corporate foundation donated $1,000. A 5-year-old girl emptied her piggy bank to donate $1.28. Media outlets such as the Seattle Times and CNN began reporting that people from all over the world were inspired to give to Rachel's cause (Elkin, 2011; Wogan, 2011). At the close of Rachel's online campaign-with an original goal of just $300-a total of 31,997 individuals had donated a combined $1,265,823 (charity: water, 2013b). After making their contributions, thousands of the donors posted comments on Rachel's webpage, praising and thanking her for being an inspiration (charity: water, 2013a). A young donor of $9 stated, "I am nine years old. Rachel's life has inspired me to give to help other people have clean water around the world." Another donor ($46.20) said, "My young daughters and I were so inspired by Rachel's story. They decided to have a bake sale in her honor!" A $60 donor added, "To say you are an inspiration is an understatement…to inspire thousands of people around the word to give…astounding." Hundreds of similar donor comments reflected Rachel's inspiring example, such as "The kids in the neighborhood got together and decided to do a Koolaid/lemonade/cookie stand 29 to raise money for Rachel's cause….Rachel was our inspiration" (donated $15); and "Thank you Rachel for your inspiration! You have touched more lives in a few short years than most people could in 100. You are further proof that Angels exist" (donated $50). Regarding disruption, some additional comments from those who donated to Rachel Beckwith's ‘charity: water' campaign specifically reflect the link between disruption and inspiration: "my paradigm has shifted because of you," "thank you for opening my eyes," "thank you Rachel for waking up the world," "thank you for reminding me what I already knew, but had forgotten at times" and "I am 11 and I never thought a 9-year-old could be so thoughtful" (charity: water, 2013a). People found Rachel's unselfish birthday wish to be surprising, unexpected, and uncharacteristic of such a young girl-which is potentially disruptive in its own right. Combined with the tragic nature of her subsequent death, however, Rachel's story was likely even more disruptive to the continuity of their mental schemas, challenging traditional views like children selfishly relish birthday presents and children shouldn't die young. Such disruption led them to see things in a new way, increasing the likelihood that they would experience the insight, illumination, and transcendence associated with inspiration. In sum, I argue that an idea or possibility will be more inspiring to the extent that is it surprising, assumption-violating, unexpected, or otherwise disruptive to one's current focus or view of reality-as it jolts, shocks, or perhaps merely nudges one to a heightened awareness, above the ordinary and mundane. 30 Relevance to Core Human Motives In isolation, however, there may be times when disruption is not a sufficient condition for inspiration. An evoked stimulus will be more likely to inspire one to action when it is surprising, unexpected, and disruptive, only to the extent that it heightens one's awareness in a transcendent manner. When the nature of a disruptive stimulus highlights action related to future possibilities and unmet potential-specifically when such action is perceived as relevant to the fulfillment of core human motives-an individual will be more likely to experience inspiration, with its associated transcendence and approach motivation. As described above, transcendence refers to the characteristic of inspiration that awakens individuals to new possibilities and broadens their focus beyond the ordinary or mundane. Transcendence is associated with enhancement, positivity, and clarity (Thrash & Elliot, 2003) and implies an awakening "to something new, better, or more important" (Thrash & Elliot, 2004, p. 958). I contend that such transcendence-and an associated approach motivation to pursue unmet potential (e.g., being inspired to be a better person, write a poetic masterpiece, or develop a budding talent)-is more likely when an evoked idea, potentiality, or possibility is not only disruptive, but also perceived as relevant to the fulfillment of one's core human motives. While relevance at any level (to an individual's values, stated goals, etc.) might increase the likelihood of experiencing inspiration, I specifically focus on relevance to core human motives for two reasons. First, I treat core motives as being relatively universal in nature (discussed below). For a leader trying to inspire followers, for example, when intimately knowing all followers' personal values, goals, and interests is difficult or impractical, targeting core human 31 motives has a greater potential to reach all people, in general. Second, as underlying drivers of human thought and behavior, core motives represent what individuals deem important at a central level. A cue or stimulus that evokes an idea that is perceived as relevant to core human motives is thus more likely to lead to transcendence, and thus inspiration, as it heightens one's awareness to issues of fundamental importance to the individual. Specifically, there are three core human motives that underlie much, if not most, of human behavior, as outlined by Swann and Bosson (2010): agency, communion, and coherence. First, agency refers to the human motive to strive for autonomy and competence. Rooted originally in philosophy (e.g., Hegel, 1807/1977), the agency motive has since been recognized by psychologists (e.g., Bakan, 1966; Bandura, 1989) as a driving force in people's desire to act with intentionality and capability. People pursue agency by creating, mastering, expanding, and asserting (Rosso, Dekas, & Wrzesniewski, 2010). Personal values reflected in the agency motive include pleasure, influence, wealth, competence, achievement, power, autonomy, and ambition (Trapnell & Paulhus, 2012). McAdams (1993) describes agency as composed of status/victory, achievement/responsibility, self-mastery, and empowerment. In short, the essence of the agency motive is the desire to intentionally act of one's own volition (i.e., autonomy) and to do so with skill, ability, capability, and/or mastery (i.e., competence). Agency, as a fundamental human motive, is thus rooted in self-determination theory's basic psychological needs of autonomy and competence (see Deci & Ryan, 2000; Ryan & Deci, 2000), and may serve as the underlying foundation for more specific motives (Swann & Bosson, 2010)-like self-enhancement and self-improvement (see Fiske, 32 2004; Higgins, 1987; Kunda, 1990; Taylor & Brown, 1988; Wood, 1989). Nomologically, it is also likely related to needs for growth (Alderfer, 1969), achievement, and power (McClelland & Boyatzis, 1982). Second, communion is the motive that drives people to desire social worth, acceptance, and belongingness (Swann & Bosson, 2010). People pursue communion by contacting, attaching, connecting, and uniting (Rosso et al., 2010). Personal values reflected in the communion motive include forgiveness, trust, altruism, loyalty, harmony, compassion, civility, equality, and tradition (Trapnell & Paulhus, 2012). McAdams (1993) describes communion as composed of caring/helping, love/friendship, dialog, and unity/togetherness. In short, the essence of the communion motive is the desire to have meaningful interpersonal relationships and be a member of a valued group or community. Biologically, humans lacking sufficient interpersonal connections tend to have poorer physical health (e.g., House, Landis, & Umberson, 1988). Psychologically, people with few positive relationships report lower levels of life satisfaction (Diener, Suh, Lucas, & Smith, 1999). Moreover, in addition to seeking interpersonal relationships, the social nature and seemingly tribal impulses of humans are demonstrated in the numerous studies that reveal an apparent motivation for people to categorize themselves and others into in-groups and out-groups-even when there is not a particular incentive for doing so (e.g., Tajfel, Billig, Bundy, & Flament, 1971). Communion, as a fundamental human motive, is rooted in self-determination theory's basic psychological need of relatedness (see Deci & Ryan, 2000; Ryan & Deci, 2000) and is consistent with notions of belonging, relatedness, and affiliation as core social motives and human needs (e.g., Alderfer, 1969; Baumeister & Leary, 1995; Fiske, 2004; McClelland & Boyatzis, 1982). 33 Third, the coherence motive refers to the human drive for understanding, as manifested in the desire to have meaning and purpose, as well as control and predictability, in one's life. From an early age, infants naturally seek to identify regularities (Baillargeon, 2002; Popper, 1963) and patterns that enable them to understand their environment, observe, and learn (Swann & Bosson, 2010). As they grow into adulthood, people often seek meaning in and purpose to their lives-striving to understand the reasons for their existence in the world. In addition to making sense of the world and their place in it, people are motivated to make sense of themselves-as reflected in their need for consistency between their attitudes and behaviors (Festinger, 1957). In short, the essence of the coherence motive is the search for understanding and purpose-the desire people have to understand themselves and the world around them, and to find purpose and meaning in their lives. Coherence, as a core human motive, thus encompasses the search for purpose and meaning and the need for one's life to make sense (e.g., Baumeister, 1991; Frankl, 1959; 1997; Rokeach, 1960). The coherence motive also likely underlies the inherent needs people seem to have for closure (Kruglanski & Webster, 1996), structure (Neuberg & Newsom, 1993), and uncertainty reduction (Hogg, 2000). It has even been argued that the overall meaning in people's lives is derived from having a sense that life is coherent (Reker & Wong, 1998). Together, agency, communion, and coherence represent three broad, core human motives that drive people to action. They closely mirror the three basic human motivations presented by Hogan and Shelton (1998)-to get ahead, get along, and find meaning, respectively. Admittedly, there are individual differences related to which motive is most prominent in a given person's life, but I submit that all people exhibit or 34 are driven to action by all three core motives-at least to some degree. Moreover, it is important to note that the three motives outlined above are not mutually exclusive-or necessarily exhaustive-in relation to their influence on human behavior (i.e., a given action can be driven by multiple motives, simultaneously). Recently, Performance Inspired, Inc.-a consulting and training firm-surveyed over 2,000 consumers in an effort to identify the 25 most inspiring companies in the United States. Respondents were asked to list the five companies they found most inspirational and explain why. Apple topped the list, with accompanying comments demonstrating the link between inspiration and relevance to core motives. For example, reflective of the agency motive, respondents made comments like, "Apple makes me feel entrepreneurial" and "Apple makes me feel more creative." Regarding communion, "Apple fans also said they felt like they were a part of a special community" (Smith, 2012). Reflecting the coherence motive, other companies were often highly rated as inspirational due to their commitment to a greater cause or purpose. Toms Shoes, for instance, donates a pair of shoes to the needy for every pair it sells, and the chief executive of Whole Foods extolls the virtues of "what he calls ‘Conscious Capitalism,' an emphasis on grounding business around a profound purpose" (Smith, 2012, para. 14). Companies that relate to consumers in a way that is perceived as relevant to the core human motives of agency, communion, and coherence thus appear to be some of the most inspiring. The relationship between the three motives and being inspired lies in the transcendence criterion of inspiration. I assert that evoked possibilities or ideas that are perceived as relevant to the fulfillment of agency, communion, and/or coherence motives 35 will take on a greater-even transcendent-significance, more important than people's usual concerns. Drawing on the workplace spirituality literature, for example, Ashforth and Pratt (2002) inductively identified three types of transcendence related to transcending the here-and-now (or status quo) and connecting to something greater than oneself. Specifically, they describe human experiences of transcendence in terms of self-development (i.e., transcending one's current state or limits to achieve greater potential), connection (i.e., transcending the self through attachment to a greater cause, purpose, other people, or nature), and integration (i.e., transcending fragmentation and chaos by integrating oneself and one's universe into a coherent and harmonious system) (Pratt & Ashforth, 2003). I propose that the greater the extent to which a disruptive idea, possibility, or potential action is perceived as relevant to one's core human motives, the more likely an individual will experience transcendence: a transcendence of self-development stemming from action and possibilities that satisfy the agency motive, a transcendence of connection stemming from action that satisfies the communion or coherence motives (e.g., coherence related to purpose), or a transcendence of integration stemming from action that satisfies the coherence motive (e.g., coherence related to understanding). Returning to the example of Rachel Beckwith's unselfish birthday wish and the subsequent movement she inspired, many of the donors' comments further explained why they were inspired to contribute-citing reasons relevant to core human motives. For example, reflecting the perceived relevance of Rachel's story to the agency motive, donors made comments related to their personal growth and development as human beings, such as, "you make me want to be a better person," "your big heart and 36 generosity changed me….I promise I will continue to strive to become even more compassionate and generous," and "I'll try to think about ways to be a better human every time I drive by the [location of your accident]." A recently married woman wrote, "I promised that I would become a better person for knowing about Rachel….We donated a while ago and we asked for donations to come here in lieu of wedding gifts" (charity: water, 2013a). Rachel's unselfish birthday wish thus seemed to inspire some donors, in part, because it was relevant to their agency motive-their desire to become their best selves. Other donors seemed to be inspired to donate by the sense of connectedness or belonging they felt by being a part of Rachel's campaign. They made comments reflective of the communion motive, such as, "thank you Rachel for making the global community a little more closely knit," "I know that those of us connected through this tragedy will find a way to stay connected and continue Rachel's dream," and "I am so amazed at how the world has come together in unity over this." Moreover, donors also made comments reflective of the coherence motive, suggesting that Rachel's story inspired them because they perceived donating as relevant to their desire for purpose, meaning, and understanding in life: "thank you for reminding us all what is truly important in life and inspiring people to ‘pay it forward' for years to come," "Here's [$20] for a great cause inspired by the coolest 9-year-old girl ever," and "not only is [Rachel's webpage] a great place to come to continue to have faith in something much bigger than ourselves, but it also gives us a place to give and know it is going to a great cause" (charity: water, 2013a). These donors' comments-related to life's true 37 importance, a worthy cause, and connecting to something greater than oneself-reflect their internal desire to have purpose, meaning, and coherence in their lives. Taken together, the donors' comments exemplify how perceiving a new possibility or potential action (e.g., joining Rachel's campaign and donating to charity: water) as relevant to core human motives can inspire people to act. Rachel's story inspired thousands of people to contribute, because they perceived donating as a means of becoming a better person (agency), connecting with a broader community (communion), and/or finding purpose and understanding in their lives (coherence). As I argued previously, possibilities or potential actions that are perceived as relevant to people's core motives are more likely to be viewed with a heightened awareness that transcends their usual preoccupations, because core motives represent what is important and significant to individuals at a central, fundamental level. Therefore, perceiving a possibility as relevant to the agency, communion, and/or coherence motives is more likely to lead to a transcendent awareness-a transcendence of self-development (e.g., being a better person), connection (e.g., belonging to a broader community), and/or integration (e.g., discovering what is truly important in life), respectively (Pratt & Ashforth, 2003)-and thus more likely to lead to inspiration. In sum, while I posit that the disruption of cognitive schemas is central to the experience of inspiration, I further assert that the more relevant an evoked idea, potentiality, or possibility is perceived to be to one's core human motives, the more likely such cognitive disruption will lead one to experience inspiration. Proposition 1: Greater disruption (related to an evoked possibility) will lead to stronger experiences of inspiration. Proposition 2: The positive effect of disruption on the experience of inspiration is moderated by the perceived relevance of the possibility or potential action to the 38 fulfillment of (a) agency, (b) communion, and/or (c) coherence motives, such that the effect is stronger the greater the perceived relevance. Attainability At times, however, transcendent possibilities (resulting from relevant disruptions) might not necessarily result in inspiration. For instance, when dominated by self-doubt or a lack of confidence, people may actually view such evoked possibilities and potential actions as uninspiring and discouraging-as they envision a desired future state but feel incapable of reaching or achieving it (Lockwood & Kunda, 1997). For example, research on social comparison theory found that people tend to react negatively to relevant comparisons with other people (e.g., potential role models) when they feel they lack sufficient time (Aspinwall, 1997; Aspinwall, Hill, & Leaf, 2002) or adequate control over a situation (Major, Testa, & Bylsma, 1991; Testa & Major, 1990) to enact the modeled behaviors or achieve the desired outcomes. I therefore argue that an evoked possibility or potential action that disrupts the continuity of one's current mental schemas will be more inspiring to the extent that it is also perceived as attainable. By perceived attainability, I mean the perceived likelihood of being able to realize, actualize, or progress toward the evoked idea, possibility, or potentiality (e.g., become a better person, strengthen a relationship, or work toward an ideal or purpose); the more attainable a disruptive possibility is perceived to be, the more likely one will experience inspiration. Prior research on leadership and influence tactics is also suggestive of the importance of perceived attainability in inspiring others. Berson, Shamir, Avolio, and Popper (2001), for instance, demonstrated that leaders' vision statements were rated as most inspirational when they expressed optimism and confidence related to achieving the 39 vision-both of which likely influence the perceived attainability of the vision, from a follower's perspective. Similarly, Yukl and colleagues (Falbe & Yukl, 1992; Yukl, Kim, & Falbe, 1996; Yukl & Tracey, 1992) argue that inspirational appeals, as an influence tactic, entail efforts to increase others' confidence that they can do a requested task. Moreover, a number of other theorists have also pointed to the importance of the perceived attainability of accomplishing a given task or action [e.g., expectancy (Vroom, 1964), and self-efficacy, (Wood & Bandura, 1989)] to one's resulting motivation-one of the three components of inspiration. It is important to note, however, that while expectancy and self-efficacy are generally treated as beliefs about one's ability to successfully accomplish or perform specific tasks, my treatment of perceived attainability extends further, also encompassing abstract, non-task-specific beliefs about one's ability to enact new ideas or progress toward new possibilities (e.g., becoming a better person or fulfilling one's potential). This distinction is important for two reasons. First, as mentioned before, a given potential action can range from the concrete (e.g., donate to a charity) to the abstract (e.g., fight global poverty). Notions of expectancy and efficacy are less amenable to the abstract. Second, perceived attainability also encompasses the notion of progress, or working toward a goal. An example of a potential action that is both abstract and progress-oriented might be something like "changing the world." An individual might be inspired to change the world, without having any concrete tasks in mind regarding how to do it. And, realistically, a person may not feel capable of single-handedly solving all of the world's problems, but he or she may feel extremely confident in working and progressing toward that end. Perceived attainability thus encompasses notions of task-specific 40 efficacy and expectancy but extends beyond them to include abstract and progress-oriented actions or possibilities as well. Donors to Rachel Beckwith's campaign to bring clean water to African villages, for example, made comments related to the perceived attainability of both abstract and concrete potential actions. As an example of the abstract, donors made statements such as, "thanks for reminding all of us that one person, no matter how young, can change the world," and "one small child…is teaching all of us that the impossible is possible when we work together." More concretely, one donor mentioned being inspired by Rachel to raise money for a children's hospital, saying, "I surpassed my goal by a longshot, all because I saw what you did, and knew it wasn't impossible to encourage others to give" (charity: water, 2013a). Thus, given an evoked idea or possibility that is disruptive to one's mental schemas, I propose that the resulting experience of inspiration will be influenced largely by the perceived attainability of actualizing, enacting, or progressing toward that possibility. Proposition 3: The positive effect of disruption on the experience of inspiration is moderated by the perceived attainability of the possibility or potential action, such that the effect is stronger the greater the perceived attainability. Putting all three pieces of the disruption model together, I further predict that individuals will be the most inspired when all three conditions are met. As I have argued thus far, the positive relationship between disruption and inspiration will be influenced independently by both the perceived relevance and attainability of a possibility or potential action. I now further argue that relevance and attainability will interact simultaneously with disruption to affect inspiration, such that the interactive relationship between relevance and disruption on inspiration will be even stronger, the greater the 41 perceived attainability. As proposed previously, a disruptive possibility will be more inspiring to the extent that it is perceived as relevant to one's core human motives. I submit that this relationship will be even stronger when the possibility is also perceived to be attainable. However, when a possibility is viewed as unrealistic, greater perceived relevance may actually decrease the effect of disruption on inspiration-as an individual sees a relevant potential outcome with new eyes, but feels that it is out of reach. Indeed, for a possibility that is perceived as completely unattainable, extremely high perceptions of relevance will cause disruption to have a net negative effect on inspiration. Therefore, I specifically propose that the greater the perceived attainability of a potential action, the stronger the positive effect of perceived relevance on the relationship between disruption and inspiration. Conversely, when perceived attainability is low, I propose that high perceived relevance will actually lead to a negative relationship between disruption and inspiration. Proposition 4: Disruption, perceived relevance to core motives, and perceived attainability interact to affect inspiration. Under conditions of high perceived attainability, the relationship between disruption and inspiration will be stronger (in a positive direction) at higher levels of perceived relevance (vs. low). Under conditions of low perceived attainability, the relationship between disruption and inspiration will be stronger (in a negative direction) at higher levels of perceived relevance (vs. low). Notably, when disruption, perceived relevance to core motives, and perceived attainability are all high, inspiration will be greatest. Give Kids the World: Revisited As a full example of the disruption model of inspiration, turn again to the story of how holocaust-survivor Henri Landwirth was inspired to create Give Kids the World to help ensure that all children with life-threatening illnesses who wished to meet Mickey Mouse, Disney princesses, and other characters at Disney World, would be able to do so 42 before it was too late. The premature death of Amy-the 6-year-old girl for whom Landwirth had first agreed to provide a complimentary hotel room-evoked a recognition within him of the possibility that he could actively do something to make sure that no other child's dying wish would go unfulfilled. Regarding disruption, Landwirth's successful career path-from night clerk to hotel owner-had instilled in him a belief that anything and everything was possible in America. Regarding Amy's unfulfilled wish, he said, "How could this happen? How could we allow a child to die before she could see Mickey Mouse? How in America could we not fulfill any child's last wish?" (Landwirth, 1996, p. 181). Such thoughts disrupted his mental schema about America. Moreover, he was shocked to learn that "it took six to eight weeks to process the many components, including hotels, transportation and tickets, necessary to arrange a trip for the families. Sometimes six to eight weeks can mean the difference between life and death. It was with this thought" he remarked, "that…the most remarkable part of my life's journey, began" (p. 181). Thus, Amy's death was also disruptive in the sense that it led Landwirth to recognize a completely new problem, and possible solution, that he had never before considered-it caused him to think about things in a new way, to see things in a new light. Regarding relevance to core motives, Landwirth-despite having healthy and successful children, an extremely profitable hotel business, and other lucrative investments-felt that "something was still missing." As he reflected on the possibility of helping other children like Amy, he remarked, "I had a sense of discovering that which had been missing from my life" (Landwirth, 1996, p. 182). Landwirth was finding a renewed sense of purpose and meaning in life (i.e., the coherence motive). Additionally, 43 Landwirth also described the evoked possibility of helping terminally-ill children in terms related to the communion motive (Glauser, 1999): I know what it's like to be waiting to die….I see a definite connection between me and the children. They have no control over their lives, and I had no control over my life in the camp. They are skinny and pale, and I see myself in their faces. This has really drawn me to them. I just want to devote my life to serving these families. (p. 41) Similarly, Landwirth (1996) made the following comment in reference to all those involved in Give Kids the World: "We are all connected through the children. Their innocence and the burden of their suffering brings us together with a common goal" (p. 188). According to the disruption model of inspiration, the initial possibility, or potential action, of helping children's dying wishes come true was even more inspiring to Landwirth because he viewed it as relevant to his core motives of communion (as he perceived a sense of connection and relatedness with the suffering children, as well as with the others who would potentially join in his effort) and coherence (as he found a renewed sense of purpose and meaning behind his new goal). Regarding attainability, Landwirth was uniquely qualified to develop a stream-lined system for making quick and efficient arrangements for children with life-threatening illnesses to visit Disney World. His own hotel business notwithstanding, Landwirth had a large network of contacts in the local hotel and transportation industries, as well as personal friendships with executives from Disney, Sea World, and other relevant organizations (Landwirth, 1996). Whereas some people in a similar situation might feel powerless-and thus uninspired or demotivated-Landwirth's professional background, experiences, and conviction led him to believe that successfully overcoming the challenges of expediting the arrangement-making process was attainable. This 44 perceived attainability, in conjunction with his perception that the possibility (i.e., creating Give Kids the World) was relevant to his core motives and disruptive to his current mental schemas, inspired Landwirth to dedicate much of the rest of his life to helping children fulfill their dying wishes. Inspiring Moral Behavior in Others While the disruption model of inspiration can be applied broadly to multiple areas of inquiry, the moral domain provides a useful context from which to explore inspiration as a phenomenon, because better understanding how to inspire moral behavior in others has significant practical and theoretical implications. For example, in 1997, Bill and Angela Halamandaris co-founded The Heart of America, an organization dedicated to inspiring youth to serve their communities. According to Bill Halamandaris, they began with a philosophy of accentuating the positive: "you seek out the best people you can find and give them visibility. The goal is to create an ever-increasing spiral of inspiration" (Glauser, 1999, p. 98). One of Heart of America's several programs seeks to inspire youth to help others by identifying great moral role models and linking them up with schools. The implicit theory behind such an approach is that exposing students to moral role models, or exemplars, can inspire them to actually engage in more prosocial (e.g., helping) behavior themselves. Recent evidence suggests that exposure to moral exemplars, indeed, can motivate individuals to engage in more prosocial and altruistic behavior (e.g., Freeman, Aquino, & McFerran, 2009; Schnall et al., 2010). In an organizational setting, for example, the moral excellence of leaders can elicit an emotional response indicative of inspiration (i.e., 45 elevation; Haidt 2003a, 2003b) in followers that leads to more helping behavior at work (Vianello, Galliani, & Haidt, 2010). The specific functioning of inspiration in such examples, however, has not been investigated directly. Inspiration as a Moral Motivator Theory and research in moral psychology (e.g., Haidt, 2001), moral development (e.g., Kohlberg, 1969) and neuroscience (e.g., Greene, Nystrom, Engell, Darley, & Cohen, 2004; Moll, & De Oliveria-Souza, 2007) often focus on moral judgment as a primary dependent variable that is influenced by moral intuitions (including emotions), moral reasoning, or both. However, judgments do not always lead to actions and behavior that are consistent with those judgments. For example, consider the teenager who believes that shoplifting and cheating are immoral, yet steals a candy bar to satisfy immediate hunger and cheats on an exam in hopes of a better grade. The reasons for behaving in ways inconsistent with one's judgments-moral or otherwise-are many; historically, in the moral domain, the relationship between moral cognition and moral action has been shown to be low to moderate (Blasi, 1980; Kish-Gephart, Harrison, & Treviño, 2010; Mischel & Mischel, 1976). In a well-known example, Darley and Batson (1973) reported that Princeton seminary students largely passed over a needy man lying on the ground, despite being en route to deliver a sermon on the Good Samaritan. Even when primed with a biblical story about helping others in need, these seminary students-who were devoting their education to their religion-often failed to help. It has been suggested that a critical component missing from many theories of morality is a motivational mechanism strengthening the link from moral judgment and 46 decisions to moral intentions and behavior (Chiu et al., 1997; Dweck & Leggett, 1988; Rest, 1983). Whereas early cognitive theories of moral development (e.g., Kohlberg, 1969) focused primarily on explaining moral judgments-largely assuming that rational individuals would be compelled to act in ways consistent with their judgments-later models of moral reasoning better acknowledged the potential disconnect between judgments and behavior (Rest, 1983; 1986; Rest, Narvaez, Bebeau, & Thoma, 1999), suggesting that sufficient moral motivation is required to translate moral judgments into action. Recently, many scholars have begun to move beyond the study of moral judgment by examining actual moral and ethical behavior, but this literature largely focuses on how individuals inadvertently or unwittingly exhibit lapses in moral judgment-due to the human propensity to overlook moral implications, rationalize immoral choices, and disengage moral self-sanctions (e.g., Bandura, 1999; Chugh, Bazerman, & Banaji, 2005; Moore, Detert, Treviño, Baker, & Mayer, 2012; Tenbrunsel, Diekmann, Wade-Benzoni, & Bazerman, 2010; Tenbrunsel & Messick, 2004). However, there are also times when individuals consciously believe that they know the "right" thing to do, yet lack the moral motivation necessary to do it. An emerging body of literature examining the role of emotions in moral and ethical decision making is beginning to investigate how emotions can affect both moral judgment (e.g., Warren & Smith-Crowe, 2008) and behavior (see Tangney, Stuewig, & Mashek, 2007). I submit that inspiration, which is both cognitive and affective in nature, can be an important source of moral motivation, serving as a mechanism that not only influences one's judgments but also motivates intentions and actions based on those judgments. In the specific context of moral behavior, inspiration provides an interesting 47 point of entry for addressing the question of how individuals can be influenced to act more morally, because, by definition, inspiration is associated with an approach motivation-which can help close the gap between judgment and behavior. While recent theorizing suggests that individuals have certain capacities and characteristics-such as moral identity, moral ownership, moral efficacy, and moral courage (Hannah, Avolio, & May, 2011; Hardy & Carlo, 2005)-that can increase one's motivation to act on moral judgments, a treatment of inspiration as a moral motivator shifts the focus of inquiry from the moral capacities one already possesses to the situational cues and external stimuli that may highlight the moral possibilities that lie ahead. Certainly, one's moral capacities will likely influence the degree to which one is inspired to act morally (e.g., moral efficacy is sure to affect one's perceived attainability related to a moral action), but, I suggest, the disruptive and transcendent nature of inspiration-that leads individuals to see things in a new light-can be a moral motivator for even those with low moral capacities. Inspiring Prosocial Behavior In particular, inspiration has the potential to play an influential role in motivating prosocial behavior-defined as actions intended to benefit others (see Dovidio, Piliavin, Schroeder, & Penner, 2006; Eisenberg, Fabes, & Spinrad, 2006; Hinde & Growbel, 1991). In addition to the practical importance of examining how to influence others to do "good," I have elected to examine inspiration as a moral motivator of specifically prosocial behavior for two reasons: (1) prosocial behavior is closely related to behavioral activation systems and approach motivational tendencies (Janoff-Bulman et al., 2009), 48 which fits nicely and is consistent with the approach motivation criterion of inspiration; and (2) prosocial behavior has been somewhat understudied within the moral domain. First, prosocial behaviors-such as helping, cooperation, and altruism-are examples of care-based (Carlo, 2005; Gilligan, 1982) actions intended to benefit others that fall squarely into the harm/care dimension of the moral domain (Haidt & Kesebir, 2010). Whereas a large body of morality and ethics literature focuses on proscriptive morality (i.e., what one should not do), prosocial behavior is form of prescriptive morality (Janoff-Bulman et al., 2009)-similar to Kant's (1991/1797) imperfect duties- focused on what individuals should do or ought to do. Janoff-Bulman and colleagues (2009) empirically demonstrated that prescriptive, as compared to proscriptive, morality is more closely related to behavioral activation systems and approach motivational tendencies (see Carver, 2006; Carver & White, 1994; Gray 1990). That is, prescriptive moral motivation (related to helping others, cooperating, etc.) is action-oriented, focused on achieving or approaching positive outcomes, whereas proscriptive moral motivation (related to not stealing, not cheating, etc.) is focused on inhibiting action and avoiding negative outcomes. Therefore, given that inspiration specifically entails an approach motivation to enact or actualize an idea or possibility (i.e., a positive outcome), prosocial behavior-a form of prescriptive morality closely (although not exclusively) related to approach motivational tendencies-is a fitting candidate for being a target of inspiration. Furthermore, there are reasons to expect that engaging in prosocial behavior would be perceived as relevant to an individual's core motives. For example, it is plausible that helping others can provide purpose to one's life (e.g., coherence), increase a sense of 49 connection with others (e.g., communion), and produce feelings of being a good person or one's best self (e.g., agency). The intersection of inspiration and prosocial behavior thus seems to be a natural place for beginning an investigation of the role of inspiration in driving action, specifically moral action. It is important to note, however, that not all action-oriented, prosocial behavior is necessarily moral. For example, research on unethical prosocial behaviors (Umphress & Bingham, 2011; Umphress, Bingham, & Mitchell, 2010) is beginning to emerge, and individuals have been shown to favor ingroups (Gino & Pierce, 2010) and break rules (Morrison, 2006) for purportedly prosocial reasons. That said, the promotion of prosocial behavior has important moral implications for individuals' lives and society as a whole, and while I acknowledge a potential dark side, better understanding how to inspire prosocial behavior is a morally relevant and important question. The second primary reason for choosing to examine inspiration vis-à-vis prosocial behavior is due to the relative underrepresentation of prosocial behavior in theory and research related to ethics and morality. By exploring when and why people are inspired to engage in prosocial behavior, I hope to answer calls from moral (Lapsley, 1996) and developmental (Carlo, 2005; Eisenberg et al., 2006) psychology, as well as behavioral and business ethics (see Bradley, Brief, & Smith-Crowe, 2008; Mayer, 2010), to better incorporate prosocial behavior and doing "good" into investigations of morality and ethics. 50 Summary In sum, the disruption model predicts that evoked possibilities and potentialities will more likely be inspiring when they are disruptive to mental schemas, perceived as relevant to core human motives, and perceived as attainable. Whereas previous research has alluded to relevance and attainability as important precursors to inspiration (see Falbe & Yukl, 1992; Lockwood & Kunda, 1997; Yukl, Kim, & Falbe, 1996), these two factors alone primarily account for only the motivational component of inspiration (see Figure 2, Box A), in a manner theoretically similar to Vroom's (1964) expectancy theory- relevance reflecting valence, and attainability reflecting expectancy and instrumentality. I have therefore asserted that the disruption of mental schemas is a critically important but previously unacknowledged factor-critical because it helps account for the transcendence component of inspiration, especially when an evoked idea is also perceived as relevant to one's core human motives, which carry a fundamental but elevated sense of importance (See Figure 2, Box B). The sweet spot for an evoked possibility or potentiality to inspire action is thus when it is disruptive, relevant to core motives, and attainable (See Figure 2, Box C). In Chapter 2, I describe a series of studies I conducted to examine the disruption model of inspiration in multiple contexts, with a variety of potentially inspiring cues and stimuli. Specifically, the studies focus on individuals' experiences of inspiration-with a focus on encouraging prosocial behavior-and the facilitating roles of (1) disruption, (2) perceived relevance to core motives, and (3) perceived attainability. In what follows, I formulate specific hypotheses reflective of the propositions outlined previously. Better 51 Figure 2. The Relationships Among Disruption, Relevance, and Attainability understanding the experience of inspiration related to potential action, particularly in the moral domain, can lead us one step closer to helping individuals become their best selves. Disruption Relevance to Core Motives Attainability Inspiration "Sweet Spot" A B C Relevance to Core Motives Disruption Relevance Attainability Motivation CHAPTER 2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Using a multimethod approach, I test the disruption model of inspiration in a range of samples from numerous settings, using a variety of potentially inspiring stimuli. In the three studies that follow, a number of specific hypotheses are developed-all aimed at exploring the accuracy and applicability of the model's basic propositions, as outlined previously. Studies 1 and 2 focus on testing the basic relationships among the model's key concepts, by both measuring and manipulating the main predictor variables, respectively. In Study 3, a manager in a Fortune 100 financial services firm used the model in an attempt to actually inspire others to act prosocially. In Study 1, a simple online survey, a sample of U.S. adults was exposed to a potentially inspiring cue (e.g., a short newspaper article) and then asked to complete several measures intended to assess the degree to which they were inspired and whether the cue caused them to recognize possibilities that were disruptive to the continuity of their current mental schemas, relevant to their core motives, and perceived as attainable. The relationships among constructs were then be examined statistically. In Study 2, to better establish the directionality of the model's relationships (i.e., causality), I conducted an experiment, in which the perceived relevance, attainability, and disruptive nature of a 53 stimulus was manipulated, with predicted differences in the resulting levels of inspiration experienced by participants. In a field-experiment, Study 3, I specifically examined leadership as a source of inspiration in the field. A manager of an operations and client services center for a large financial services firm gave short presentations to his employees. A third of employees received an "inspiring" presentation, wherein the leader attempted to frame a desired action in terms of relevance to core motives, attainability, and disruption (as described previously). Another third of employees received a presentation based on principles of persuasion, wherein the manager sought to persuade his subordinates to engage in the desired action. The final third of employees received no presentation and served as a control group. An objective measure of whether the employees engaged in the prosocial action was then recorded and used as the dependent measure for analysis. Taken together, the collective purpose of the three studies was to contribute to a better understanding of what inspires people to act. Study 1: A Test of the General Model (Survey) The purpose of Study 1 was to examine the underlying relationships of the disruption model of inspiration. A fundamental premise of the model is that individuals are more likely to be inspired by a given stimulus or cue to the extent that it disrupts the continuity of their current mental schemas, leading them to see the world in a new way, with fresh eyes. An evoked possibility or potentiality is thus more likely to inspire one to act when it causes one to make new mental connections, heightening their awareness above the ordinary and mundane. Furthermore, I have argued, such disruption is more 54 likely to be transcendent, and thus inspiring, to the extent that the possibility or potential action is perceived as relevant to agency, communion, and/or coherence motives. When the prospect of actualizing an idea or achieving a possibility is related to the essence of who people are and what drives them to act (i.e., core human motives), it takes on an elevated sense of importance that transcends the ordinary and mundane. Accordingly, I hypothesize the following: Hypothesis 1: The greater the disruption (related to an evoked possibility), the more likely one will experience inspiration. Hypothesis 2: Perceived relevance to core motives (i.e., (a) agency, (b) communion, and/or (c) coherence) strengthens the relationship between disruption and inspiration. However, I have also argued that the disruptive nature of a new idea or potential action will be less likely to inspire when the action (and/or its effects) is perceived to be impossible, unlikely, or simply out of reach. Conversely, the greater the confidence in one's ability to transform an evoked possibility into reality, the more inspiring the possibility may become: Hypothesis 3: Perceived attainability of an evoked possibility strengthens the relationship between disruption and inspiration. Finally, taken together, the first three hypotheses lead to a fourth, wherein I predict that disruption, perceived relevance to core motives, and perceived attainability all interact to affect an individual's experience of inspiration. Specifically, I predict that inspiration will be the strongest when all three are high. In other words, people are most likely to be strongly inspired when an evoked possibility disrupts the way they usually think about things, is relevant to their core motives, and is believed to be attainable: Hypothesis 4: There is a three-way interaction among disruption, perceived relevance to core motives, and perceived attainability, such that inspiration is the 55 strongest when all three are high. Specifically, under conditions of high perceived attainability, the relationship between disruption and inspiration will be stronger (in a positive direction) at higher levels of perceived relevance (vs. low). Under conditions of low perceived attainability, the relationship between disruption and inspiration will be stronger (in a negative direction) at higher levels of perceived relevance (vs. low). Sample Two-hundred-thirty-seven adults in the United States were recruited to participate in the study through the Amazon Mechanical Turk, web-based platform (see Buhrmester, Kwang, & Gosling, 2011; Paolacci, Chandler, & Ipeirotis, 2010). The average age of participants was 35.60 (SD = 12.67), and 54% were female. Seventy-four percent reported their ethnicity as White, 8% as Black, 8% as Hispanic, 5% as Asian, 1% as Native American, and 4% as other. Each participant was asked to complete an online survey in exchange for monetary compensation. The selection criteria for Study 1 were purposely broad (i.e., U.S. adults), to provide an opportunity of examining the hypothesized relationships in an expansive, general population. Procedures All survey respondents were asked to read a potentially inspiring story (in the form of a newspaper article). The story described a man who was living in Scotland when he quit his job to start a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing meals to hungry children in developing countries (see Appendix A). After reading the story, respondents were asked to complete a survey with questions referring to their experience reading the assigned article. The survey included items intended to measure the extent to which the story caused them to recognize possibilities that were disruptive to the continuity of their 56 current mental schemas, perceived as relevant to their core motives, and attainable. Respondents also reported the extent to which they were inspired by the story-the primary dependent variable. Finally, all respondents were asked to answer basic demographic questions and then read a debriefing form. Measures Inspiration. Respondents reported the level of inspiration they experienced while reading the article according to the four items of the state version (Thrash et al., 2010) of the Inspiration Scale (Thrash & Elliot, 2003). Recalling their experience reading the article, respondents recorded their level of agreement with the following statements: "I experienced inspiration," "something in the article inspired me,"4 "I was inspired to do something," and "I felt inspired." Each item was rated from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). Responses to the four items were averaged to form a composite inspiration score (α = .95). Relevance to core motives. There are a number of existing measures for human needs (La Guardia, Ryan, Couchman, & Deci, 2000; Sheldon, Elliot, Kim, & Kasser, 2001), values (Trapnell & Paulhus, 2012), and aspects of psychological well-being (Ryff, 1989) that are reflective of the core human motives as outlined above. However, these scales measure the degree to which one's needs and motives are perceived to be fulfilled-in general or in relation to a specific event-whereas the present research concerns the perceived relevance of a potential action to one's core motives. Therefore, I adapted items from scales such as those listed above to create new measures of perceived 4 The word "film," in the second item of the State Inspiration scale (Thrash et al. 2010b), was replaced with the word "article" to accurately reflect the context of the present study. 57 relevance to the agency, communion, and coherence motives, respectively. For each measure, respondents were asked to indicate their agreement with a number of statements, using a Likert-type scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). To measure relevance to the agency motive, respondents were given the stem, "the article I just read caused me to recognize possibilities that are relevant to…," followed by the items, "…my sense of being an independent person," "…my desire to be a competent individual," "and …my feelings as a capable person." For the communion motive, responding to the same stem, items included, "…my meaningful relationships with others," "…my sense of connection with other people," and "…my sense of closeness to others." Finally, the items pertaining to the coherence motive included, "…my deeper purpose in life," "…my sense of meaning in life," and "…my direction in life." Items for each motive were averaged to form a subscore for agency (α = .83), communion (α = .88), and coherence (α = .91). To help assess the psychometric properties of the relevance to core motives measures, in addition to calculating reliability coefficients, I also performed a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to help validate the factor structure of the constructs. Measures of disruption, attainability (see below), and inspiration were also included in the CFA. Disruption. Disruption to the continuity of current mental schemas was measured by asking respondents to indicate their level of agreement with three items: The article "…has made me see things in a new way," "…has caused me to make sense of things in ways I had not previously considered," and "…has caused me to refocus my attention in some way." Again, responses were reported using a 7-point scale (1 = strongly disagree, 58 7 = strongly agree), and the average of all items was taken to form the measure of disruption (α = .81). Attainability. To measure perceived attainability, face-valid scale items similar to those used in perceived competence scales (e.g., Williams & Deci, 1996) were created. Respondents were given the stem, "The article caused me to recognize possibilities that…" and asked to rate their level of agreement with the following statements: "…I am confident in my abilities to pursue," "…I am capable of actualizing in some way," and "…I have the ability to successfully achieve." Statements were rated on a 7-point, Likert-type scale (1 = strongly disagree, 7 = strongly agree), and responses from the three items were averaged to form a composite measure for attainability (α = .92). Social desirability. Finally, to account for the potential tendency of participants to respond to self-report items in a biased manner (i.e., consistent with social norms rather than indicative of one's sincere thoughts), respondents were be asked to complete a short form of the Marlow-Crowne Social Desirability scale (Reynolds, 1982), to be used as a control variable. The scale includes 13 true-false questions, including, "No matter who I'm talking to, I'm always a good listener," and "I sometimes feel resentful when I don't get my way" (reverse coded). The sum of all responses (false = 0, true = 1) was calculated to form a measure of social desirability (ranging from 0 to a high of 13; α = .80). Results First, I performed a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA; see Figure 3) of the items from the five adapted measures (i.e., agency, communion, coherence, disruption, and 59 Note. V1 - V19 correspond to items in the order they were presented in the text above for each measure. Figure 3. Results of Confirmatory Factor Analysis attainability) and the measure of inspiration. The full model with the five factors loading separately (χ2 = 271.6, df = 137, CFI = .97, GFI = .90, RMSEA = .065) demonstrated good fit with the data, and I compared it with the fits of three potentials alternatives: (1) a 1-factor model collapsing all six variables into a single factor, (2) a 4-factor model combining items from the three core motives into a single factor, with disruption, attainability, and inspiration as separate factors, and (3) a 5-factor model combining items from the communion and coherence motives, with agency, disruption, attainability, and inspiration as separate factors. The comparative CFA results for each model (see Table 1) demonstrate that the 6-factor model not only best fit the data, but it was also the only model with fit indices falling within generally accepted ranges. These results increase 60 Table 1. Comparison of Alternative Factor Structures (Study 1) Structure x2 df CFI GFI RMSEA 1-factor 1,483.1 152 .66 .54 .193 4-factor 676.6 146 .86 .76 .124 5-factor 479.4 142 .91 .82 .100 6-factor 271.6 137 .97 .90 .065 Note. In the 4-factor model, all three core motives were combined as a single factor. In the 5-factor model, coherence and communion were combined into a single latent variable, and the remaining four variables were included separately. confidence in the validity of the measures, as well as suggest that the measures for the three core motives should likely remain and be included in analysis individually, and not be combined into a single measure of relevance to core motives. Descriptive statistics and correlations among all study variables are listed in Table 2. To test Hypothesis 1-that disruption predicts inspiration-I performed an ordinary least squares (OLS) regression analysis with inspiration as the dependent variable and disruption as the independent variable, while controlling for age, gender, and social desirability. The overall model was significant, R2 = .52, F(4, 232) = 62.02, p < .001, and, as predicted, disruption positively predicted inspiration, B = .68, SE = .05, t = 14.95, p < .001. I thus found initial support for Hypothesis 1. Next, to test Hypothesis 2-that perceived relevance to core motives moderates the positive effect of disruption on inspiration-I created interaction terms by multiplying disruption by relevance to each of the three core motives (i.e., agency, communion, and coherence). Because results from the CFA best supported a model measuring the three motives separately, I analyzed the interaction of disruption with each motive individually, rather than as a single composite measure. First, to analyze the potential moderating 61 Table 2. Means, Standard Deviations, and Correlations M SD (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (1) Agency 5.04 1.19 (.83) (2) Communion 5.45 1.17 .54** (.88) (3) Coherence 5.51 1.23 .47** .65** (.91) (4) Disruption 4.61 1.24 .46** .52** .57** (.81) (5) Attainability 5.16 1.22 .59** .62** .58** .47** (.92) (6) Inspiration 5.34 1.23 .47** .64** .66** .71** .52** (.95) (7) Age 35.62 12.67 -.00 .09 .01 .01 -.02 .01 - (8) Gender .46 .50 .03 -.08 -.07 -.09 -.00 -.16* .01 - (9) Social Desirability 6.66 3.35 .18** .13* .11 .08 .18** .16* .03 .02 (.80) Note. N = 237. Gender is coded female = 0, male = 1. Scale reliabilities are given in parentheses. *p < .05, **p < .01. influence of relevance to the agency motive, in step 1 of a hierarchical regression analysis, I tested a model with inspiration as the dependent variable, and disruption, agency, and control variables (i.e., age, gender, and social desirability) as predictors, R2 = .54, F(5, 231) = 54.56, p < .001. In step 2, the interaction term disruption x agency was added to the model, R2 = .56, F(6, 230) = 48.25, p < .001. The results of both steps are reported in Table 3. The interaction term was significant (B = -.08, p = .005) and adding it to the model increased the explained variance (ΔR2 = .02, p = .005). However, conducting a simple slopes analysis (Aiken & West, 1991) revealed that the pattern of the interaction effect did not support Hypothesis 2 (see Figure 4). Whereas I predicted disruption would have a stronger effect on inspiration at higher levels of perceived relevance, the simple slopes suggest just the opposite: Higher levels of perceived relevance to the agency motive decrease the size of the effect of disruption on inspiration. 62 Table 3. Hierarchical Regression Analysis Examining Agency as a Moderator Step 1 Step 2 Variables B t B t Age .00 .20 .00 .15 Gender -.28 -2.54* -.29 -2.61** Social Desirability .03 1.71† .03 1.89† Disruption .60 11.95*** 1.01 .72*** Agency .19 3.53** .50 4.13*** Disruption x Agency -.08 1.89** R2 .54*** .56*** ΔR2 .02** Note. Dependent Variable = inspiration. B = unstandardized regression coefficient. Gender is coded female = 0, male = 1. †p < .10, *p < .05, **p < .01, ***p < .001. Note. Low and high represent one standard deviation below and above the mean, respectively, for each variable. Figure 4. Simple Slopes for the Disruption x Agency Interaction 4 5 6 Low Disruption High Disruption Inspiration Low Agency High Agency 63 Next, to analyze the potential moderating influence of relevance to the communion motive on the relationship between disruption and inspiration, I again performed hierarchical regression analysis. In step 1, I tested a model with inspiration as the dependent variable, and disruption, communion, and the same control varia