Enduring Exercise Habits: Trending Norms

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.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Healthy
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Trending Majority Norm; Behavioral: Majority Norm; Behavioral: Trending Minority Norm; Behavioral: Minority Norm; Behavioral: Control

Detailed Description

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.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 2000
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Pennsylvania
    • Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, 19104
      • University of Pennsylvania

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Has 24 Hour Fitness gym membership

Exclusion Criteria:

-

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Supportive Care
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

5

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Trending majority norm; Participants receive information about exercise-related norms that apply to the majority of the population and are told this norm has been increasing recently.	Behavioral: Trending Majority Norm; Participants receive information about exercise norms that apply to the majority of the population and have recently been trending up.
Experimental: Non-trending majority norm; Participants receive information about exercise-related norms that apply to the majority of the population but are not told about recent trends.	Behavioral: Majority Norm; Participants receive information about exercise norms that apply to the majority of the population but are given no information about trends in this norm.
Experimental: Trending minority norm; Participants receive information about exercise-related norms that apply to a minority of the population and are told this norm has been increasing recently	Behavioral: Trending Minority Norm; Participants receive information about exercise norms that apply to the minority of the population and have recently been trending up.
Experimental: Non-trending minority norm; Participants receive information about exercise-related norms that apply to a minority of the population but are not told about recent trends.	Behavioral: Minority Norm; Participants receive information about exercise norms that apply to the minority of the population but are given no information about trends in this norm.
Experimental: Control; Participants receive information about exercise unrelated to social norms or recent trends.	Behavioral: Control; Participants receive information about exercise that is unrelated to social norms or trends in social norms.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Gym visits per week	Number of times the participant goes to the gym	During the 28-day intervention period
Gym visits per week	Number of times the participant goes to the gym	During the 4-weeks post-intervention
Gym visits per week	Number of times the participant goes to the gym	During the 10-weeks post-intervention
Whether or not a participant visits the gym in a given week	Binary variable capturing whether or not a participant had any gym visits in a given week	During the 28-day intervention period
Whether or not a participant visits the gym in a given week	Binary variable capturing whether or not a participant had any gym visits in a given week	During the 4-weeks post-intervention
Whether or not a participant visits the gym in a given week	Binary variable capturing whether or not a participant had any gym visits in a given week	During the 10-weeks post-intervention

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Gym visits per week	Number of times the participant goes to the gym	During the 52-weeks post-intervention
Whether or not a participant visits the gym in a given week	Binary variable capturing whether or not a participant had any gym visits in a given week	During the 52-weeks post-intervention

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Pennsylvania

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): January 31, 2018
• Primary Completion (Actual): February 28, 2019
• Study Completion (Actual): February 28, 2019

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: August 2, 2018
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: August 8, 2018
• First Posted (Actual): August 14, 2018

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): June 11, 2020
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: June 9, 2020
• Last Verified: June 1, 2020

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: exercise; social norms; interest in exercising more
• Other Study ID Numbers: 827107-1237

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: No

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No
• product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.: No