Prosocial Exercise: Does Exercising for Charity Result in Greater Well-Being and Physical Activity?

Sedentary Lifestyle

The purpose of this study is to determine whether prosocial exercise (exercising for the benefit of others) results in greater well-being and physical activity when compared to personal exercise (exercising without attempting to benefit others). Participants will be randomly assigned to utilize one of two exercise apps for a two week period: Charity Miles, which allows users to donate money to charities based on exercise participation, or Nike+ Running, which is a standard GPS exercise app. Participants will be provided with questionnaires at pre- and post-test, at a 4 week-follow-up, and immediately before and after each use of the app.

Physical inactivity is a prevalent problem, with few Canadians active enough to accrue the health-related benefits associated with exercise. In response to ineffective means of physical activity promotion efforts, recent work suggests focusing on well-being as an outcome of exercise to better promote such behaviour. Well-being is often conceptualized from two separate fields of study: hedonia and eudaimonia. Hedonia is concerned with the experience of pleasure and the avoidance of pain and is often equated to happiness. Conversely, eudaimonia is associated with more existential concerns and is sometimes equated with 'personal meaning'. While hedonic well-being has been reliably linked to increased physical activity behaviour, less is understood about the possible effects of eudaimonic well-being on exercise engagement. As such, research should work towards developing a greater understanding of the relationship between well-being and physical activity. In doing so, research may be able to ascertain whether the experience of both hedonic and eudaimonic well-being is effective in increasing exercise engagement. One particular behaviour that has been reliably linked to well-being is prosocial behaviour, or behaviour undertaken voluntarily with the aim of aiding or benefitting others. In particular, a wide variety of research has established a link between well-being and prosocial behaviours including volunteering and prosocial spending. Furthermore, engaging in prosocial behaviour has been identified as an effective means of motivating individuals and increasing performance. As prosocial behaviour has been linked to increased hedonic and eudaimonic well-being, and as prosocial motivation has been identified as a powerful means of behaviour change, prosocial exercise, or engaging in physical activity to benefit others, may produce increases in well-being and future physical activity behaviour. As prosocial exercise is a common and popular activity (e.g., engaging in charity runs such as Run for the Cure or Relay for Life), research should work to ascertain whether increased well-being is related to prosocial exercise, and whether this association results in increased exercise behaviour. In order to test this, students will be recruited to take part in a two-week experiment, whereby half of the students will be randomly assigned to a prosocial exercise condition (and use the prosocial exercise app, 'Charity Miles'), and half will be randomly assigned to a personal exercise condition (and utilize a standard exercise app, Nike+ Running). Participants' eudaimonic and hedonic well-being and exercise behaviour will be assessed at baseline and two weeks following, as well as before and after each use of the exercise app. It is hypothesized that the participants in the prosocial exercise condition will report greater exercise engagement compared to participants in the standard condition, and that this relationship will be mediated by hedonic and eudaimonic well-being.

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