Why people should run after positive affective experiences, not health benefits
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51224/SRXIV.164Keywords:
physical activity, decision making, health, affect, effortAbstract
Most individuals are now aware of health benefits of physical activity (PA) but remain physically inactive. Mobilizing a multidisciplinary approach at the crossroads between decision-making sciences, we investigate why highlighting the health benefits of PA is unlikely to promote a sustained engagement in PA. Essential features of decision making – effort-discounting, delay-discounting and beliefs distortion – may weaken the subjective value attributed to health benefits, making the latter insufficient to trigger PA behaviors. We develop a decision model demonstrating that health benefits hold a weak subjective value, in comparison with the cost of engaging in PA (e.g., effort) and of our innate attraction toward sedentary alternatives. Instead, focusing on positive affective experiences could counteract the impact of aforementioned features and ultimately favor a regular engagement in PA. Tackling the current pandemic of physical inactivity would therefore require an urgent change in the promotion of PA, so as to make affective experiences central.
Metrics
References
Pontzer H. Ecological Energetics in Early Homo. Curr Anthropol. 2012;53(S6):S346-S358. doi:10.1086/667402
Kohl HW, Craig CL, Lambert EV, et al. The pandemic of physical inactivity: Global action for public health. Lancet. 2012. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(12)60898-8
Bull FC, Al-Ansari SS, Biddle S, et al. World Health Organization 2020 guidelines on physical activity and sedentary behaviour. Br J Sports Med. 2020;54(24):1451-1462. doi:10.1136/bjsports-2020-102955
Bauman A, Chau J. The Role of Media in Promoting Physical Activity. J Phys Act Heal. 2009;6(s2):S196-S210. doi:10.1123/jpah.6.s2.s196
Fredriksson SV, Alley SJ, Rebar AL, Hayman M, Vandelanotte C, Schoeppe S. How are different levels of knowledge about physical activity associated with physical activity behaviour in Australian adults? PLoS One. 2018;13(11):e0207003. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0207003
Canadian Fitness and Lifestyle Research Institute. Physical activity monitor: facts and figures.
Rhodes RE, de Bruijn G-J. How big is the physical activity intention-behaviour gap? A meta-analysis using the action control framework. Br J Health Psychol. 2013;18(2):296-309. doi:10.1111/bjhp.12032
Bricca A, Harris LK, Jäger M, Smith SM, Juhl CB, Skou ST. Benefits and harms of exercise therapy in people with multimorbidity: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials. Ageing Res Rev. 2020;63:101166. doi:10.1016/j.arr.2020.101166
Saunders TJ, Dechman G, Hernandez P, et al. Distinct Trajectories of Physical Activity Among Patients with COPD During and After Pulmonary Rehabilitation. J Chronic Obstr Pulm Dis. 2015;12(5):539-545. doi:10.3109/15412555.2014.995286
Ekkekakis P. People have feelings! Exercise psychology in paradigmatic transition. Curr Opin Psychol. 2017;16:84-88.
Segar ML, Richardson CR. Prescribing Pleasure and Meaning. Am J Prev Med. 2014;47(6):838-841. doi:10.1016/j.amepre.2014.07.001
Rangel A, Camerer C, Montague PR. A framework for studying the neurobiology of value-based decision making. Nat Rev Neurosci. 2008;9(7):545-556. doi:10.1038/nrn2357
Rangel A, Hare T. Neural computations associated with goal-directed choice. Curr Opin Neurobiol. 2010;20(2):262-270. doi:10.1016/j.conb.2010.03.001
Floresco SB, Onge JR St., Ghods-Sharifi S, Winstanley CA. Cortico-limbic-striatal circuits subserving different forms of cost-benefit decision making. Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci. 2008;8(4):375-389. doi:10.3758/cabn.8.4.375
Basten U, Biele G, Heekeren HR, Fiebach CJ. How the brain integrates costs and benefits during decision making. Proc Natl Acad Sci. 2010;107(50):21767-21772. doi:10.1073/pnas.0908104107
Prévost C, Pessiglione M, Météreau E, Cléry-Melin M-L, Dreher J-C. Separate valuation subsystems for delay and effort decision costs. J Neurosci. 2010;30(42):14080-14090.
Hagura N, Haggard P, Diedrichsen J. Perceptual decisions are biased by the cost to act. Elife. 2017;6. doi:10.7554/elife.18422
Reimers CD, Knapp G, Reimers AK. Does Physical Activity Increase Life Expectancy? A Review of the Literature. J Aging Res. 2012;2012:1-9. doi:10.1155/2012/243958
Ainslie G. Specious reward: A behavioral theory of impulsiveness and impulse control. Psychol Bull. 1975;82(4):463-496. doi:10.1037/h0076860
Rachlin H, Raineri A, Cross D. Subjective probability and delay. J Exp Anal Behav. 1991;55(2):233-244. doi:10.1901/jeab.1991.55-233
Rick S, Loewenstein G. Intangibility in intertemporal choice. Philos Trans R Soc B Biol Sci. 2008;363(1511):3813-3824. doi:10.1098/rstb.2008.0150
Lebreton M, Bertoux M, Boutet C, et al. A critical role for the hippocampus in the valuation of imagined outcomes. PLoS Biol. 2013;11(10). doi:10.1371/JOURNAL.pbio.1001684
Blackburn M, Mason L, Hoeksma M, Zandstra EH, El-Deredy W. Delay discounting as emotional processing: An electrophysiological study. Cogn Emot. 2012;26(8):1459-1474. doi:10.1080/02699931.2012.673478
Sharot T, Kanai R, Marston D, Korn CW, Rees G, Dolan RJ. Selectively altering belief formation in the human brain. Proc Natl Acad Sci. 2012;109(42):17058-17062. doi:10.1073/pnas.1205828109
Brownstein AL. Biased predecision processing. Psychol Bull. 2003;129(4):545-568. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.129.4.545
Weinstein ND. Unrealistic optimism about future life events. J Pers Soc Psychol. 1980;39(5):806-820. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.39.5.806
Ditto PH, Lopez DF. Motivated skepticism: Use of differential decision criteria for preferred and nonpreferred conclusions. J Pers Soc Psychol. 1992;63(4):568-584. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.63.4.568
Miller DT, Ross M. Self-serving biases in the attribution of causality: Fact or fiction? Psychol Bull. 1975;82(2):213-225. doi:10.1037/h0076486
Salander P. Attributions of lung cancer: my own illness is hardly caused by smoking. Psychooncology. 2007;16(6):587-592. doi:10.1002/pon.1121
Fox CR, Poldrack RA. Prospect Theory and the Brain. In: Neuroeconomics. Elsevier; 2014:533-567. doi:10.1016/B978-0-12-416008-8.00042-5
Dukes D, Abrams K, Adolphs R, et al. The rise of affectivism. Nat Hum Behav. 2021;5(7):816-820. doi:10.1038/s41562-021-01130-8
Brand R, Ekkekakis P. Affective–Reflective Theory of physical inactivity and exercise: Foundations and preliminary evidence. Ger J Exerc Sport Res. 2018;48(1):48-58. doi:10.1007/s12662-017-0477-9
Conroy DE, Berry TR. Automatic Affective Evaluations of Physical Activity: Exerc Sport Sci Rev. 2017;45(4):230-237. doi:10.1249/JES.0000000000000120
Cheval B, Boisgontier MP. The Theory of Effort Minimization in Physical Activity. Exerc Sport Sci Rev. 2021;49(3):168-178. doi:10.1249/JES.0000000000000252
Williams DM, Bohlen LC. Motivation for exercise: Reflective desire versus hedonic dread. In: APA Handbook of Sport and Exercise Psychology, Volume 2: Exercise Psychology (Vol. 2). Washington: American Psychological Association; 2019:363-385. doi:10.1037/0000124-019
Swann C, Jackman PC, Schweickle MJ, Vella SA. Optimal experiences in exercise: A qualitative investigation of flow and clutch states. Psychol Sport Exerc. 2019;40:87-98. doi:10.1016/j.psychsport.2018.09.007
Taylor IM, Smith K, Hunte R. Motivational processes during physical endurance tasks. Scand J Med Sci Sports. 2020;30(9):1769-1776. doi:10.1111/sms.13739
Ekkekakis P. The Dual-Mode Theory of affective responses to exercise in metatheoretical context: II. Bodiless heads, ethereal cognitive schemata, and other improbable dualistic creatures, exercising. Int Rev Sport Exerc Psychol. 2009;2(2):139-160. doi:10.1080/17509840902829323
Liao Y, Shonkoff ET, Dunton GF. The Acute Relationships Between Affect, Physical Feeling States, and Physical Activity in Daily Life: A Review of Current Evidence. Front Psychol. 2015;6. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01975
Reed J, Ones DS. The effect of acute aerobic exercise on positive activated affect: A meta-analysis. Psychol Sport Exerc. 2006;7(5):477-514. doi:10.1016/j.psychsport.2005.11.003
Ensari I, Greenlee TA, Motl RW, Petruzzello SJ. Meta-analysis of acute exercise effects on state anxiety: an update of randomized controlled trials over the past 25 years. Depress Anxiety. 2015;32(8):624-634. doi:10.1002/da.22370
White RL, Parker PD, Lubans DR, et al. Domain-specific physical activity and affective wellbeing among adolescents: an observational study of the moderating roles of autonomous and controlled motivation. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act. 2018;15(1):87. doi:10.1186/s12966-018-0722-0
Ekkekakis P, Parfitt G, Petruzzello SJ. The pleasure and displeasure people feel when they exercise at different intensities. Sport Med. 2011;41(8):641-671.
Bourke M, Hilland TA, Craike M. Variance in the valenced response during moderate-to-vigorous physical activity: a review of cognitive and contextual mechanisms. Int Rev Sport Exerc Psychol. 2021;14(1):154-185. doi:10.1080/1750984X.2020.1780626
Lahart I, Darcy P, Gidlow C, Calogiuri G. The Effects of Green Exercise on Physical and Mental Wellbeing: A Systematic Review. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2019;16(8):1352. doi:10.3390/ijerph16081352
Williams DM, Dunsiger S, Emerson JA, Gwaltney CJ, Monti PM, Miranda R. Self-Paced Exercise, Affective Response, and Exercise Adherence: A Preliminary Investigation Using Ecological Momentary Assessment. J Sport Exerc Psychol. 2016;38(3):282-291. doi:10.1123/jsep.2015-0232
Zenko Z, Ekkekakis P, Ariely D. Can You Have Your Vigorous Exercise and Enjoy It Too? Ramping Intensity Down Increases Postexercise, Remembered, and Forecasted Pleasure. J Sport Exerc Psychol. 2016;38(2):149-159. doi:10.1123/jsep.2015-0286
Zenko Z, Ekkekakis P, Kavetsos G. Changing minds: Bounded rationality and heuristic processes in exercise-related judgments and choices. Sport Exerc Perform Psychol. 2016;5(4):337-351. doi:10.1037/spy0000069
Downloads
Posted
Categories
License
Copyright (c) 2022 Silvio Maltagliati, Philippe Sarrazin, Layan Fessler, Maël Lebreton, Boris Cheval
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
