Tracing how normative messages may influence physical activity intention

Normative messages have been shown to increase intention to do physical activity (PA). We traced how 'positive' and 'negative' normative messages influenced PA intention by comparing constructs of the model of goal-directed behaviour with descriptive norms (MGDB+DN) across control and treatment groups in an experiment. 16 to 24 year-old respondents (n=1200) in Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania were asked about their age, sex, and levels of PA before being exposed to positive and negative normative messages and completing a questionnaire with MGDB+DN scales. Different MGDB+DN constructs were influenced by the normative messages: compared to the control, the negative message group showed stronger attitudes (p=0.003) and the positive message group showed higher positive anticipated emotions (p=0.005). The positive message's effect is consistent with the literature on conformity to social norms. The negative message's effect lends itself to interpretations based on social identity and deviance regulation theories.

VAN BAVEL Rene;  ESPOSITO Gabriele;  BARANOWSKI Tom;  DUCH BROWN Nestor; 

2017-12-04

HUMAN KINETICS PUBL INC

JRC91181

0895-2779,   

http://journals.humankinetics.com/doi/10.1123/jsep.2016-0149,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC91181,   

10.1123/jsep.2016-0149,