Enduring Exercise Habits: Trending Norms

Healthy

exercise, social norms, interest in exercising more

Learning that most people engage in an activity can be a powerful motivator to adoption. But are there instances in which people can similarly find motivation from learning that only a minority of others engage in a behavior? Evidence suggests this may be possible when the message is that the size of the minority has been growing in recent years. In this study, we first examine how gym members' exercise patterns shift when they are informed that the minority versus the majority of (a subpopulation of) other Americans exercise frequently. We also test how gym members are affected by learning that the number of frequent exercisers has increased in recent years.

Gym members register online to participate in a 28-day workout program. Upon registration, participants are assigned to one of five conditions (a 2 x 2 study design plus a control group). Participants are assigned to receive information about majority exercise norms or minority exercise norms, and are informed that these norms are trending up or receive no information about trends in these norms. Participants are then prompted to create a workout schedule. Over the 28-day intervention period, participants are sent text messages with information about exercise depending on their condition (i.e., majority trending exercise norms, majority exercise norms with no information about trends, minority trending exercise norms or minority norms with no information about trends), workout reminders before their scheduled workouts, and weekly emails with additional exercise information related to their assigned condition and their schedule. Participants assigned to the control condition are prompted to create a workout schedule and receive text message reminders, information about exercise that is unrelated to social norms, and weekly emails with exercise information unrelated to social norms or trends and their workout schedule. All participants earn points for participating and for each day that they go to the gym which can be redeemed for an Amazon cash gift card after the end of the intervention period.

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United States