Table 1.

Summary of Our Intervention Studies.

Study	Sample	Setting	Theoretical Approach	Summary of Intervention	Summary of Results
Durik and Harackiewicz (2007)	College students	Laboratory	Interest theory	A mental math technique was presented with either “catch” features (colorful fonts and pictures) or utility-value information (how the technique could be useful in everyday life).	Interest was increased with a catch manipulation for students with low initial interest, whereas utility value increased interest for students with high initial interest.
Hulleman et al. (2010), Study 1	College students	Laboratory	Expectancy-value theory	Students either wrote about the utility of a mental math technique or described pictures on the wall in the control condition.	Self-generated utility value increased interest for students with low performance expectations.
Hulleman et al. (2010), Study 2	College students	Introductory psychology classroom	Expectancy-value theory	Students either wrote about the utility of a topic in their class or wrote a summary of the topic in the control condition.	Self-generated utility value increased interest for students with low actual performance.
Hulleman and Harackiewicz (2009)	9th-grade students	High-school science classrooms	Expectancy-value theory	Students either wrote about the utility of a topic in their class or wrote a summary of the topic in the control condition.	Self-generated utility value improved interest and increased performance by two thirds of a letter grade for students with low performance expectations.
Harackiewicz et al. (2012)	Parent–teen pairs	Wisconsin study of families and work	Expectancy-value theory	Two brochures were mailed to parents that emphasized the utility value of various STEM disciplines (or not, in control conditions).	Students whose parents received the intervention enrolled in more math and science courses in high school compared with the control group.
Harackiewicz et al. (2013)	College students	Introductory biology classrooms	Self-affirmation theory	In two brief writing assignments, students either wrote about values that were important to them or wrote about values that were not important to them but might matter to someone else (control condition).	Values affirmation increased course grades, semester grade-point average (GPA), and retention for first-generation college students.