Enduring Exercise Habits: Trending Norms



Status:Recruiting
Conditions:Healthy Studies
Therapuetic Areas:Other
Healthy:No
Age Range:18 - Any
Updated:8/16/2018
Start Date:January 31, 2018
End Date:March 31, 2020
Contact:Katherine L Milkman, PhD
Email:bcfg@wharton.upenn.edu
Phone:215-573-9646

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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.

Inclusion Criteria:

- Has 24 Hour Fitness gym membership

Exclusion Criteria:
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3451 Walnut St
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104
1 (215) 898-5000
Phone: 215-573-9646
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