The theory of action identification is a system of three principles explaining how people's thoughts of what they are doing relate to what they do. In a sense, the principles suggest an “operating system” for a human being – a program linking thought to action. The principles suggest simply that people do what they think they are doing, that when they can think of doing something more, they do that – but that when they can't do what they were thinking of doing, they think of doing less. Stated this way, the principles may seem perhaps too simple, but their interaction and ramifications are remarkably complex and predictive of a rich array of phenomena. The theory ...
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