Physical activity promotion: precise matching of message frames and affect types

Figures & data

Table 1. Examples of the affect types and framed messages for physical activity promotion.

Approach-positive affect	Approach-negative affect	Avoidance-positive affect	Avoidance-negative affect
Happy, content, and Joy	Sad, disappointed, and depressed	Calm, relieved, and relaxed	Nervous, worried, and tense
Gain-positive messages	Gain-negative messages	Loss-positive messages	Loss-negative messages
If you participate in regular physical activity, you will…		If you do not participate in regular physical activity, you will…
Physical aspects (11 statements)
enhance immunity	avoid immunity weakening	forgo immunity strengthening	incur immunity weakening
enhance muscle strength	avoid muscle weakening	forgo muscle strengthening	incur muscle weakening
enhance agility and flexibility	avoid agility and flexibility weakening	forgo agility and flexibility enhancement	incur agility and flexibility weakening
Psychological aspects (8 statements)
help improve moods	avoid negative moods	forgo moods improvement	incur negative moods
help improve psychological state	avoid poor psychological state	forgo psychological state improvement	incur poor psychological state
help improve processing speed	avoid processing speed decline	forgo processing speed improvement	incur processing speed decline
Social aspects (4 statements)
help widen social network	avoid social network shrinkage	forgo social network widening	incur social network shrinkage
help improve interaction with people	avoid problems interacting with people	forgo the improvement in interacting with people	incur problems interacting with people
help make friends	avoid being alone	forgo the opportunity to make friends	incur loneliness

Table 2. Sample characteristics and experimental outcomes by matching conditions (N = 147).

	Unmatched (n = 57)		Valence-matched only (n = 27)		Direction-matched only (n = 31)		Fully-matched (n = 32)
	Mean	SD	Mean	SD	Mean	SD	Mean	SD
Sample characteristics/covariates
Age (years)	20.35	2.89	20.12	1.31	20.11	1.56	20.32	1.71
Women	0.65	0.48	0.59	0.50	0.52	0.51	0.59	0.50
Household income	4.76	1.83	4.17	1.73	4.26	1.90	4.34	1.59
BMI (kg/m^2)	20.50	2.57	19.48	2.62	20.89	3.51	20.58	2.62
Number of chronic diseases	0.16	0.49	0.07	0.27	0.16	0.37	0.31	0.54
Baseline physical activity (METs)	1252.82	1109.53	1494.85	1395.94	1208.90	914.59	1191.39	1152.59
Experimental outcomes
Immediate physical activity attitude	4.87	1.18	4.90	1.11	5.14	0.67	4.95	1.04
Immediate physical activity intention	4.86	1.07	4.84	0.98	5.09	0.83	4.99	1.19
Follow-up physical activity attitude	4.29	1.34	4.15	1.14	4.51	0.93	4.78	1.23
Follow-up physical activity intention	4.10	1.19	4.19	1.22	4.42	1.04	4.68	1.39
Follow-up physical activity (METs)	1742.51	1612.57	1729.50	1522.98	1887.61	1643.51	1438.09	881.24

Table 3. Standardized regression coefficients predicting the experimental outcomes (N = 147).

	Immediate PA attitude		Immediate PA intention		Follow-up PA attitude		Follow-up PA intention		Follow-up PA behaviour
	M1	M2	M1	M2	M1	M2	M1	M2	M1	M2
Age	.10	.10	.03	.05	.10	.09	.09	.10	-.01	.01
Women	-.02	-.03	-.11	-.10	-.06	-.05	-.13	-.13	.02	.03
Household income	.07	.08	.20*	.23**	-.09	-.08	.10	.13	.06	.08
BMI	-.04	-.05	.23**	.22*	-.01	-.03	.10	.09	-.05	-.03
Number of chronic diseases	-.06	-.04	-.02	-.03	-.16*	-.17^†	-.06	-.05	.06	.10
Baseline physical activity	.10	.10	.03	.05	.12	.13	.07	.08	.36***	.36***
Message-frame conditions
Gain frame (vs. loss)	-.34**	-.45**	-.19^†	-.20	-.41***	-.47***	-.16	-.17	-.03	-.14
Positive end-state (vs. negative)	-.09	-.16	-.12	-.13	-.19^†	-.22^†	-.08	-.08	-.19	-.27*
Gain frame × positive end-state	.16	.32^†	.28*	.32*	.32*	.41*	.13	.15	.18	.32*
Affect types
Approach-positive		--		--		--		--		--
Approach-negative		.00		-.05		-.02		-.08		-.04
Avoidance-positive		-.07		-.06		.02		-.10		-.05
Avoidance-negative		-.10		-.04		.04		-.11		-.12
Mixed		-.09		.01		-.16		-.05		.16
Matching types
Unmatched		--		--		--		--		--
Valence-matched only		.06		.07		-.05		.08		.17
Direction-matched only		.19		.17		.12		.14		.22*
Fully-matched		.01		.21*		-.04		.22*		.09
R^2	.10	.15	.14*	.18*	.13*	.18*	.07	.12	.15**	.20*
Δ R^2		.04		.04		.05		.05		.05

^† p < .10, * p < .05, ** p < .01, *** p < .001.

Note. PA = physical activity, M1 = Model 1, M2 = Model 2. Baseline physical activity and follow-up physical activity scores were square-root transformed to enhance normality.

Table 4. Predicted means of the physical activity outcomes by message-frame conditions and by matching types.

	Immediate PA attitude		Immediate PA intention		Follow-up PA attitude		Follow-up PA intention		Follow-up PA behaviour
	Mean	SE	Mean	SE	Mean	SE	Mean	SE	Mean	SE
Message-frame conditions
Gain-positive	4.91	0.18	4.70	0.21	4.99	0.18	4.34	0.22	40.32	2.83
Gain-negative	4.47	0.17	4.11	0.20	4.45	0.17	4.09	0.21	36.87	2.72
Loss-positive	5.08	0.18	4.29	0.20	4.96	0.17	4.32	0.21	32.39	2.78
Loss-negative	5.40	0.19	4.60	0.21	5.41	0.18	4.51	0.22	41.45	2.90
Matching types
Unmatched	4.81	0.16	4.14	0.19	4.92	0.16	4.03	0.20	33.70	2.57
Valence-matched only	4.98	0.22	4.36	0.25	4.79	0.21	4.29	0.26	40.89	3.40
Direction-matched only	5.30	0.21	4.65	0.24	5.22	0.20	4.45	0.25	42.88	3.29
Fully-matched	4.84	0.19	4.74	0.22	4.81	0.19	4.68	0.23	37.20	3.04