Is anybody doing it? An experimental study of the effect of normative messages on intention to do physical activity

BMC Public Health

Tom Baranowski¹  Gabriele Esposito²  René van Bavel² 

[1] Children’s Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA;Institute for Prospective Technological Studies, Joint Research Centre, European Commission, Calle Inca Garcilaso 3, 41092 Seville, Spain

关键词: Young adults;    Health behaviour;    Normative messages;    Physical activity;   

Others  :  1128837
DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2458-14-778

 received in 2014-01-24, accepted in 2014-07-18,  发布年份 2014

【 摘 要 】

Background

The study explores whether messages about the physical activity levels of the majority (i.e. normative messages) affect young adults' intention to engage in regular physical activity.

Methods

An experimental survey among 16 to 24 year-olds in Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania (n = 1200) was conducted in March 2013. A control group received no message; one treatment group was told that the majority was physically active (positive message); and another treatment group was told that the majority was not physically active (negative message).

Results

Both the positive and (unexpectedly) the negative normative messages showed a significant and positive effect on intention to be physically active. There was no difference between the effects of the messages.

Conclusions

Normative messages affect intention, which is encouraging for public health campaigns. The effect of the positive message confirms previous findings on conformity to the norm; the effect of the negative message is unexpected and requires further research to be understood.

【 授权许可】

   
2014 van Bavel et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

【 图 表 】

Figure 1.

Figure 2.

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