Find a gym buddy – not letting them down may be the most powerful incentive to get exercising

By guest blogger Juliet Hodges Spreading information about the benefits of exercise – including how it reduces the risk of chronic diseases and improves mental health and wellbeing, from sleep quality to self-esteem – hasn’t been enough to change people’s behaviour. Only 30 to 40 per cent of adults in the UK say they get the recommended amount of physical activity per week, and this figure drops to just 5 per cent when using accelerometers to measure movement. It’s a similar story even for people who have made the effort to join a gym – in a recent poll, a third of members reported visiting their gym three times a year or less. It seems we need to get more creative to persuade people to get active. To test out some innovative psychological approaches, a new study published in the Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics selected 181 infrequent gym-goers at the University of West Chester, who went on average less than once a week before the experiment. All students at the university have free access to the fitness centre, and their attendance is automatically recorded when they swipe in. The researchers tested three types of intervention, in isolation or combined, over the course of three weeks. First was the financial incentive: everyone (except the control group) was entered into a lottery, with a chance to win an $80 Amazon voucher if they met their weekly exercise goal of three 30-minute sessions. Second, some participants were partnered up, and were ...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: guest blogger Health Teams Source Type: blogs