Dan Bailis -SRG 2007
Français
Most people who adopt the goal of improving physical activity do not succeed. The aim of this research is to examine goal conflict as a uniquely contributing factor to the low rate of success. To date, the research has involved the screening of over 1,000 undergraduates with high exercise motivation into a series of laboratory experiments. In our typical experiment, after making a commitment to exercise, students are randomly assigned to conditions that prompt them to think about either their conflicting academic goals, or their consistent exercise goals. Follow-up measures of the students’ mood, motivation/intentions, and exercise behaviour permit us to test the effects of this brief exposure to goal conflict, while holding other factors constant.
Preliminary experiments and those conducted in the first year of this grant showed that goal conflict can create a barrier to regular physical activity in several ways: by (a) lowering the amount of exercise that is performed up to 1 week later, (b) preventing intrinsic enjoyment of exercise, and (c) conditioning negative emotions to exercise-related objects and settings. These studies (now under peer review) found no evidence that goal conflict lowers participants' attitudes or intentions to exercise: instead, it prevents them from acting on their intentions.
Experiments in the second year considered goal conflict in the broader context of excuses for non-adherence to exercise, and personal factors and interventions that might counteract goal-conflict effects. The excuse-making research formed the basis of a successful Master’s thesis and new collaboration with researchers who are including exercise prescriptions in an online treatment program for patients with insomnia.
The major focus of research in years 2 and 3 has been interventions to manage goal conflict effectively. To date we have examined interventions such as scheduling exercise in advance, promotional messages that emphasize the costs of inactivity vs. the benefits of regular activity, and videos that emphasize the benefits of exercise for health vs. alternate goals. In each case, our findings suggest that the damaging effects of goal conflict for exercise performance or enjoyment can be avoided.
Two practical implications of this research are already clear. The first is that poor adherence to exercise has psychological causes and remedies apart from individuals’ knowledge of health-related risk, or other sources of motivation toward exercise, which are still the main targets of interventions in this field. The second is that goal conflict is likely to be fueled by a social organization of exercise that keeps it separate from (and therefore apparently costly to) individuals’ other goal pursuits. To address goal conflict, public policies and promotional messages can shift toward the notion of sustainably integrating exercise with other pursuits.
2010 Presentation Slides
Contact Us
