Numerous studies have been conducted to demonstrate that behaviours are frequently activated unconsciously. The present studies investigate the downstream psychological consequences of such unconscious behaviour activation, building on work on the explanatory vacuum and post‐priming misattribution. It was hypothesized that unconsciously activated behaviours trigger a negative affective response if the behaviour violates a personal standard and that this negative affect subsequently motivates people to confabulate a reason for the behaviour. Results provided evidence for this mediated moderation model. Study 1 showed that participants who were primed to act less prosocially indeed reported increased levels of negative affect and, as a result, were inclined to confabulate a reason for their behaviour. Study 2 replicated these findings in the domain of eating and provided evidence for the moderating role of personal standards as well as the entire mediated moderation model. These findings have relevant theoretical implications as they add to the modest number of studies that demonstrate that the effect of unconscious priming may extend well beyond performing the primed behaviour itself to influence subsequent affect and attribution processes. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

ObjectiveTo investigate associations between socioeconomic status (SES) indicators (education, job position, income, multidimensional index) and the genesis of chronic low back pain (CLBP).DesignLongitudinal field study (baseline and 6-month follow-up).SettingFour medical clinics across Germany.Participants352 people were included according to the following criteria: (1) between 18 and 65 years of age, (2) intermittent pain and (3) an understanding of the study and the ability to answer a questionnaire without help. Exclusion criteria were: (1) pregnancy, (2) inability to stand upright, (3) inability to give sick leave information, (4) signs of serious spinal pathology, (5) acute pain in the past 7 days or (6) an incomplete SES indicators questionnaire.Outcome measuresSubjective intensity and disability of CLBP.ResultsAnalysis showed that job position was the best single predictor of CLBP intensity, followed by a multidimensional index. Education and income had no significant association with intensity. Subjective disability was best predicted by job position, succeeded by the multidimensional index and education, while income again had no significant association.ConclusionThe results showed that SES indicators have different strong associations with the genesis of CLBP and should therefore not be used interchangeably. Job position was found to be the single most important indicator. These results could be helpful in the planning of back pain care programmes, but in general, more research on the relationship between SES and health outcomes is needed.

Back pain is a complex phenomenon that goes beyond a simple medical diagnosis. The aetiology and chronification of back pain can be best described as an interaction between biological, psychological, and social processes. However, to date, multimodal prevention and intervention programs for back pain that target all three aetiological factors have demonstrated limited effectiveness. This lack of supportive evidence for multimodal programmes in the treatment of back pain could be due to the fact that few programs are suitable for long-term and unsupervised use in everyday life. Moreover, in combining the elements from various therapies, little attention has been paid to the mechanisms underlying the synergistic effects of the separate components. In this contribution, we will describe the development of a new multimodal intervention for back pain that set out to address these limitations. To this end, the biological elements of neuromuscular adaptation is supplemented with cognitive behavioral and psychophysiological techniques in an intervention that can be followed at home as well as in clinics, and that is suitable for all grades of pain. The efficacy of this intervention will be tested in a multicentric randomized controlled longitudinal trial (n = 714) at five time points over a period of 6 months. Here we will describe the development and the content of this new intervention.

A particular form of social pain is invalidation. Therefore, this study (a) investigates whether patients with chronic low back pain experience invalidation, (b) if it has an influence on their pain, and (c) explores whether various social sources (e.g. partner and work) influence physical pain differentially. A total of 92 patients completed questionnaires, and for analysis, Pearson's correlation coefficients and hierarchical linear regression analyses were conducted. They indicated a significant association between discounting and disability due to pain (respective β = .29, p > .05). Especially, discounting by partner was linked to higher disability ( β = .28, p > .05).

Whereas hedonic consumption is often labeled as impulsive, findings from self-licensing research suggest that people sometimes rely on reasons to justify hedonic consumption. Although the concept of self-licensing assumes the involvement of reasoning processes, this has not been demonstrated explicitly. Two studies investigated whether people indeed rely on reasons to allow themselves a guilty pleasure. Participants were exposed to a food temptation after which passive and active reasoning was assessed by asking participants to indicate the justifications that applied to them for indulging in that temptation (Study 1) or having them construe reasons to consume the hedonic product (Study 2). Regression analyses indicated that higher levels of temptation predicted the number of reasons employed and construed to justify consumption. By providing evidence for the involvement of reasoning processes, these findings support the assumption of self-licensing theory that temptations not only exert their influence by making us more impulsive, but can also facilitate gratification by triggering deliberative reasoning processes.