Once activated, a mindset persists for some time and influences unrelated
tasks without the decision maker’s conscious awareness (Gollwitzer
[1990], Wyer and Xu [2010]). Thus, mindsets that have been instantiated
in service of a particular task in a particular setting can affect decision behavior
in subsequent tasks, even though the goal and content of the tasks
are very different (Wyer and Xu [2010]). For example, when individuals
who have just deliberated the pros and cons of alternatives related to an
unresolved personal problem write the ending to a fairy tale, they describe
characters that are relatively ambivalent and unable to decide what to do
(Gollwitzer, Heckhausen, and Steller [1990]). In contrast, individuals who
have just described how to implement a course of action related to an unresolved
personal problem write about characters that are more “implemental”
in that they decide on and pursue courses of action (Gollwitzer,
Heckhausen, and Steller [1990]).