Affective–Reflective Theory of physical inactivity and exercise

Brand, Ralf; Ekkekakis, Panteleimon

doi:10.1007/s12662-017-0477-9

Cited by 343 publications

(291 citation statements)

References 59 publications

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“…Therefore, BMEC could be conceived of as a reward. This assumption concurs with previous studies claiming that individuals possess an innate tendency to conserve energy and avoid unnecessary physical exertion [62,63], thereby explaining the negative affects experienced during exercise [13]. This evolutionary view of exercise may explain the exercise paradox: Why do individuals persist to be physically inactive despite knowledge of the risks associated with this inactivity?…”

Section: Behaviors Minimizing Energetic Cost As a Rewardsupporting

confidence: 89%

“…While this result seems in line with the suggestion that physical activity is a reward, it does not discard the possibility that sedentary behaviors and cost minimization are also rewarding [62]. First, almost all studies relied on physically active (motivated) individuals, who are more likely to have repeatedly experienced positive affective experiences during exercise than physically inactive (unmotivated) individuals [13]. As such, the results reported in the literature may be biased toward a higher rewarding value of physical activity.…”

Section: Neurophysiological Studies Are Neededsupporting

confidence: 56%

“…Once this automatic association is consolidated in memory, an environmental stimulus (e.g., seeing another individual running) can automatically trigger a positive evaluation of the stimulus, which will, in turn, evoke preparatory responses favoring the engagement in running, such as approach tendencies toward running. This rationale is in line with the affective-reflective theory of physical inactivity and exercise and a growing number of studies showing that the positive affective valence of exercise is associated with subsequent exercise [13]. Additionally, the ability to develop automatic strategies counteracting the rewarding value of sedentary behaviors has been suggested in a recent study showing that sedentary behaviors primes facilitated the recognition of words associated with physical activity, only in individual who manage to maintain regular physical activity [74].…”

Section: Behaviors Minimizing Energetic Cost As a Rewardsupporting

confidence: 56%

“…In neurobiology, physical activity is considered to be a reward [5][6][7][8][9][10]. Yet, recent review [11], opinion [12], and conceptual articles [13] in the field of psychology underlined the displeasure experienced during exercise, which challenges the idea that physical activity is rewarding. So far, studies mainly focused on the automatic reactions triggered by physical activity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Behavioral and neural evidence of the rewarding value of exercise behaviors: A systematic review

Cheval

Radel

Neva

et al. 2017

Preprint

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BackgroundIn a time of physical inactivity pandemic, attempts to better understand the factors underlying the regulation of exercise behavior are important. The dominant neurobiological approach to exercise behavior considers physical activity to be a reward. However, negative affective responses during exercise challenge this idea. Objective Our objective was to systematically review studies testing the automatic reactions triggered by stimuli associated with different types of exercise behavior (e.g., physical activity, sedentary behaviors) and energetic cost variations (e.g., decreased energetic cost, irrespective of the level of physical activity). Methods Two authors systematically searched, screened, extracted, and analyzed data from articles in the MEDLINE database. Results We included 26 studies. Three outcomes of automatic processes were tested: Affective reactions, attentional capture, and approach tendencies. Behavioral results show that physical activity can become attention-grabbing, automatically trigger positive affect, and elicit approach behaviors. These automatic reactions explain and predict exercise behaviors. However, the use of a wide variety of measures prevents drawing solid conclusions about the specific effects of automatic processes. Brain imaging results are scarce but show that stimuli associated with physical activity and, to a lesser extent, sedentary behaviors activate regions involved in reward processes. Studies investigating the rewarding value of behaviors driving energetic cost variations such as behaviors minimizing energetic cost are lacking. Conclusion Reward is an important factor in exercise behavior. The literature based on the investigation of automatic behaviors seems in line with the suggestion that physical activity is rewarding, at least for physically active individuals. Results suggest that sedentary behaviors could also be rewarding, although this evidence remains weak due to a lack of investigations. Finally, from an evolutionary perspective, behaviors minimizing energetic cost are likely to be rewarding. However, no study has investigated this hypothesis. In sum, additional studies are required to establish a strong and complete framework of the reward processes underlying automatic exercise behavior.Key points -Behavioral and brain imaging studies using different outcomes of automatic behavior show that physical activity and, to a weaker extent, sedentary behaviors are rewarding. -Behaviors minimizing energetic cost have been essential to evolutionary survival and are likely to be rewarding. However, experimental evidence is still lacking. -The dominant neuropsychological approaches to exercise behavior are incomplete, which may partly explain our current inability to counteract the pandemic of physical inactivity..CC-BY 4.0 International license not peer-reviewed) is the author/funder. It is made available under aThe copyright holder for this preprint (which was . http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/211425 doi: bioRxiv preprint first posted online Rewardi...

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Section: Behaviors Minimizing Energetic Cost As a Rewardsupporting

confidence: 89%

Section: Neurophysiological Studies Are Neededsupporting

confidence: 56%

Section: Behaviors Minimizing Energetic Cost As a Rewardsupporting

confidence: 56%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Behavioral and neural evidence of the rewarding value of exercise behaviors: A systematic review

Cheval

Radel

Neva

et al. 2017

Preprint

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“…Notably, how an individual feels during exercise appears to be an important correlate of physical activity behavior [5]. Consciously-accessible feelings-"core affect" [6]-are often described along two dimensions: valence (good versus bad) and activation (high versus low) [7]. Per psychological hedonism, individuals tend to innately seek positive affective states and avoid negative situations [6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental Effects of Priming on Affective Responses to Acute Exercise

Addoh

Sanders

Loprinzi

2020

Psych

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The purpose of this study was to experimentally investigate the relationship between positive affect elicitation (using a short video clip) prior to exercise and affect during acute aerobic exercise. A counterbalanced, within-subject experimental design was used. We conducted three related experiments. In Experiment 1, 30 adults aged 18-40 years participated in a positive affect-elicitation condition ("affective priming") and a control condition. Participation involved watching a five-minute video clip, as well as walking on a treadmill at a (self-selected) brisk pace for ten minutes. We compared affective ratings at baseline and intra-exercise for both conditions using a 2 (condition; priming versus no priming) × 2 (time; pre-versus mid-exercise) repeated measures ANOVA. In the follow-up experiments, we re-examined the relationship between affective priming and intra-exercise affect, addressing some limitations noted with Experiment 1. In Experiment 2, we compared the affect-elicitation properties of self-selected and imposed video clips. In Experiment 3, we re-investigated the potential affective benefits of priming, while including a neutral (neither positive nor negative) video during the control condition to attenuate potential demand characteristics, and a positive video-only condition to investigate possible carryover effects. Self-selected and imposed film clips showed similar affect-elicitation properties. Comparing the priming and control conditions, there were notable differences in the mean intra-exercise affective valence ratings (p = 0.07 Experiment 1, p = 0.01 Experiment 3). The mean affective activation ratings were not significantly different (p = 0.07 Experiment 1, p = 0.86 Experiment 3). Priming the affective state prior to exercise may be beneficial for enhancing intra-exercise affect.

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