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Mental contrasting (WOOP)

type: technique · origin: study · evidence: supported · themes: habits and self-control

Claim assessed: Imagining the goal, the obstacle and a plan helps you reach your goals.

Published · how we work

In short

Mental contrasting is a short exercise: you imagine a desired outcome, then set the present reality beside it, meaning the obstacle in the way. Combined with an “if–then” plan, it is also known as WOOP (wish, outcome, obstacle, plan). The idea comes from Gabriele Oettingen’s research, which showed that just imagining a nice future does not help you get there. Meta-analyses find a real but small-to-moderate effect.

What it says

Dreaming alone doesn’t help. Oettingen (2012) distinguishes fantasies (free thoughts and images about a desired future) from expectations (how likely you think success is). Contrary to what the popular literature on positive thinking claims, positive fantasies can reduce effort and success. Positive expectations don’t have the same effect.

The contrast. Oettingen’s theory (fantasy realization theory) says that when you set the fantasy beside present reality, you feel that you need to act. Oettingen, Pak and Schnetter (2001) tested this in four experiments across different life domains. Those who did the contrast committed strongly to the goal when their expectations were good and weakly when they were poor. Those who only dreamed, or only thought about reality, ended up moderately committed regardless of their expectations. In theory, then, the contrast works both ways: it pushes you towards realistic goals and helps you let go of unrealistic ones.

With a plan. Mental contrasting is often combined with implementation intentions: for the obstacle you identified, you make a plan of the form “if the obstacle comes up, then I will…”.

The four WOOP steps: the wish, the outcome, the obstacle and the if–then plan. In a study with 66 students, those who did the written exercise completed on average 140 practice questions over the summer, against about 84 for those who did a control exercise. The four WOOP steps an exercise of a few minutes 1. Wish: what you want to achieve 2. Outcome: the best thing that follows 3. Obstacle: what could stop you 4. Plan: if the obstacle comes up, then… practice questions completed over the summer after the written exercise (WOOP) 140 after a control exercise 84 66 high school students, before a high-stakes test
Top: the steps of the exercise (illustration). Bottom: data from Duckworth et al. (2011), means adjusted for gender and for taking a prep course.

An example study. Duckworth, Grant, Loew, Oettingen and Gollwitzer (2011) worked with 66 high school students who would take an important standardized test in the autumn. All of them wrote down two benefits of completing a practice workbook and two obstacles. Then the control group wrote an essay about something else. The intervention group imagined each benefit and each obstacle “as vividly as possible” and described them in writing. Then they wrote an “if [obstacle], then [solution]” plan for each obstacle, and a plan for when and where they would work. In the autumn, the researchers counted the questions completed in the workbooks: on average 140 in the intervention group and about 84 in the control group.

The meta-analyses. Wang, Wang and Gai (2021) pooled 24 effects from 21 studies, with almost 16,000 participants. Mental contrasting with a plan had a small-to-moderate effect on goal attainment (g = 0.34). The effect was larger when a person guided the exercise (0.47) than when it was done on paper or screen alone (0.28). The authors also found signs of publication bias: after correction, the effect drops to 0.24. Cross and Sheffield (2019) looked separately at health behaviours and also found a small-to-moderate effect (g = 0.28 at up to four weeks).

Example

You want to run three times a week. Wish: to run consistently over the next two months. Outcome: you picture yourself more rested and with more energy in the afternoon, as concretely as you can. Obstacle: in the evening, after work, you sit down on the sofa and don’t get up again. Plan: “If I get home and feel myself sitting down on the sofa, then I change clothes straight away and go out for 10 minutes.” The example is an illustration, not a study cited here.

How to apply it

The steps below are a practical way to apply the idea, proposed by us based on the studies cited.

  1. Pick a wish you can reach. The theory says the exercise commits you mainly when you think you have a real chance. For very unlikely wishes, it can help you let go.
  2. Imagine the outcome concretely, then the obstacle just as concretely. In Duckworth’s study, students imagined each benefit and each obstacle “as vividly as possible” and wrote them down.
  3. Make a plan for the obstacle. Phrase it as “if [the obstacle], then [what you do]”. Add when and where you will act.
  4. Write it down, or do it with someone. In the 2021 meta-analysis, the exercise guided by a person had a larger effect than the one done alone on paper.
  5. Don’t stop at the fantasy. Imagining only the nice outcome, without the obstacle, is exactly the version Oettingen links to less effort.

Limits and nuances

Sources

See also: Implementation intentions