Abstract: Goal contagion is a newly proposed concept in the field of motivation. It occurs when an individual spontaneously, unconsciously infer and pursue the goal behind other individual’s behavior (Aarts, 2004). Goal contagion is not only different from behavior imitation in the activated objects and the extent of complexity, but also different from observational learning in the conscious level. Goal contagion is influenced by many factors, including the accessibility of the goal and the valence of the goal. In goal contagion researches, goal is usually activated by the words relevant to goal or the stories containing social information. As the complement of conscious goal pursuit, the researches about goal contagion are helpful to understand people’s behavior further. Based on the review of the relevant researches of goal contagion, the future research prospect is suggested, for example, the influence of observer’s personality, the familiarity to goal, and the number of models upon goal contagion.

Key words: goal contagion, behavior imitation, observational learning