Prosocial Exercise: Does Exercising for Charity Result in Greater Well-Being and Physical Activity?

The purpose of this study is to determine whether prosocial exercise (exercising for the benefit of others) results in greater well-being and physical activity when compared to personal exercise (exercising without attempting to benefit others). Participants will be randomly assigned to utilize one of two exercise apps for a two week period: Charity Miles, which allows users to donate money to charities based on exercise participation, or Nike+ Running, which is a standard GPS exercise app. Participants will be provided with questionnaires at pre- and post-test, at a 4 week-follow-up, and immediately before and after each use of the app.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Sedentary Lifestyle
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: App assignment

Detailed Description

Physical inactivity is a prevalent problem, with few Canadians active enough to accrue the health-related benefits associated with exercise. In response to ineffective means of physical activity promotion efforts, recent work suggests focusing on well-being as an outcome of exercise to better promote such behaviour.

Well-being is often conceptualized from two separate fields of study: hedonia and eudaimonia. Hedonia is concerned with the experience of pleasure and the avoidance of pain and is often equated to happiness. Conversely, eudaimonia is associated with more existential concerns and is sometimes equated with 'personal meaning'.

While hedonic well-being has been reliably linked to increased physical activity behaviour, less is understood about the possible effects of eudaimonic well-being on exercise engagement. As such, research should work towards developing a greater understanding of the relationship between well-being and physical activity. In doing so, research may be able to ascertain whether the experience of both hedonic and eudaimonic well-being is effective in increasing exercise engagement.

One particular behaviour that has been reliably linked to well-being is prosocial behaviour, or behaviour undertaken voluntarily with the aim of aiding or benefitting others. In particular, a wide variety of research has established a link between well-being and prosocial behaviours including volunteering and prosocial spending. Furthermore, engaging in prosocial behaviour has been identified as an effective means of motivating individuals and increasing performance.

As prosocial behaviour has been linked to increased hedonic and eudaimonic well-being, and as prosocial motivation has been identified as a powerful means of behaviour change, prosocial exercise, or engaging in physical activity to benefit others, may produce increases in well-being and future physical activity behaviour. As prosocial exercise is a common and popular activity (e.g., engaging in charity runs such as Run for the Cure or Relay for Life), research should work to ascertain whether increased well-being is related to prosocial exercise, and whether this association results in increased exercise behaviour.

In order to test this, students will be recruited to take part in a two-week experiment, whereby half of the students will be randomly assigned to a prosocial exercise condition (and use the prosocial exercise app, 'Charity Miles'), and half will be randomly assigned to a personal exercise condition (and utilize a standard exercise app, Nike+ Running). Participants' eudaimonic and hedonic well-being and exercise behaviour will be assessed at baseline and two weeks following, as well as before and after each use of the exercise app. It is hypothesized that the participants in the prosocial exercise condition will report greater exercise engagement compared to participants in the standard condition, and that this relationship will be mediated by hedonic and eudaimonic well-being.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 117
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Canada
  • British Columbia
    • Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, V6T 1Z4
      • University of British Columbia

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• able to read and write English,
• undergraduate student at UBC,
• owns a smart phone (i.e., android or iPhone), and
• participates in a maximum of three 30 minute sessions of moderate-vigorous activity per week.

Exclusion Criteria:

• individuals not cleared for physical activity engagement (i.e., those that do not pass the Physical Activity Readiness Questionnaire Plus (PAR-Q+) and do not obtain a doctor's approval).

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Single

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Prosocial Exercise; Participants are provided with the intervention (App Assignment). In this arm, the participants are randomly assigned to the Prosocial Exercise group use a GPS exercise app named Charity Miles, in which users can earn donations for charities based on the miles they walk or run (approximately 25 cents for every mile).	Behavioral: App assignment; Under-active undergraduates are assigned to use a GPS exercise app that is prosocial (i.e., allows the user to raise money for charities) or personal (does not allow the user to raise money for charities) in nature
Active Comparator: Personal Exercise; Participants are provided with the intervention (App Assignment). In this arm, the participants are randomly assigned to the Personal Exercise group use a traditional GPS exercise app named Nike + Running, in which users can track the mileage that they walk or run (i.e., there is no opportunity to earn donations for charity through exercise behaviour).	Behavioral: App assignment; Under-active undergraduates are assigned to use a GPS exercise app that is prosocial (i.e., allows the user to raise money for charities) or personal (does not allow the user to raise money for charities) in nature

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Moderate-Vigorous Physical Activity assessed by the Godin's Leisure Time Exercise Questionnaire (GLTEQ)	A modified version of the Godin's Leisure Time Exercise Questionnaire (GLTEQ; Godin & Shephard, 1985) is employed	Pre-test, 2-weeks post, 6-weeks post

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of British Columbia
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Mark Beauchamp, PhD, University of British Columbia

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Colley RC, Garriguet D, Janssen I, Craig CL, Clarke J, Tremblay MS. Physical activity of Canadian adults: accelerometer results from the 2007 to 2009 Canadian Health Measures Survey. Health Rep. 2011 Mar;22(1):7-14.
• Ryan RM, Deci EL. On happiness and human potentials: a review of research on hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. Annu Rev Psychol. 2001;52:141-66. doi: 10.1146/annurev.psych.52.1.141.
• Rhodes RE, Fiala B, Conner M. A review and meta-analysis of affective judgments and physical activity in adult populations. Ann Behav Med. 2009 Dec;38(3):180-204. doi: 10.1007/s12160-009-9147-y.
• Segar ML, Eccles JS, Richardson CR. Rebranding exercise: closing the gap between values and behavior. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act. 2011 Aug 31;8:94. doi: 10.1186/1479-5868-8-94.
• Segar ML, Richardson CR. Prescribing pleasure and meaning: cultivating walking motivation and maintenance. Am J Prev Med. 2014 Dec;47(6):838-41. doi: 10.1016/j.amepre.2014.07.001. Epub 2014 Aug 26. No abstract available.
• Bierhoff, H. W. (2005). Prosocial behaviour. New York: Psychology Press.
• Thoits PA, Hewitt LN. Volunteer work and well-being. J Health Soc Behav. 2001 Jun;42(2):115-31.
• Dunn EW, Aknin LB, Norton MI. Spending money on others promotes happiness. Science. 2008 Mar 21;319(5870):1687-8. doi: 10.1126/science.1150952. Erratum In: Science. 2009 May 29;324(5931):1143.
• Grant, A. M., Campbell, E. M., Chen, G., Cottone, K., Lapedis, D., & Lee, K. (2007). Impact and the art of motivation maintenance: The effects of contact with beneficiaries on persistence behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 103(1), 53-67.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: February 1, 2015
• Primary Completion (Actual): November 1, 2015
• Study Completion (Actual): November 1, 2015

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: October 7, 2015
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: October 8, 2015
• First Posted (Estimate): October 9, 2015

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): May 9, 2017
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 4, 2017
• Last Verified: May 1, 2017

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: H14-03018