MOTIVATIONAL DECISION

Nearly every decision has multiple motivators, and therefore the principle implies that a single act exerts effects on many of our already held attitudes. As a rule, most of these attitudes are not conscious, and thus relatively few of the direct effects on us of our actions are apparent. We can even use the principle of direct effect to identify motivators for acts already carried out. Some practice at seeing the principle in operation is needed before using it to help us account for more complicated phenomena. First, consider the problem of why two people acting identically may affect themselves very differently.