Does the discrepancy between implicit and explicit attitudes moderate the relationships between explicit attitude and (intention to) being physically active?

Abstract

Background Explicit attitudes as well as implicit attitudes have been shown to be associated with physical activity (PA). These two types of attitudes can, however, be discrepant towards the same object or behavior. This study investigated whether there is a discrepancy between explicit and implicit attitudes (IED) regarding physical activity (PA), and whether IED moderates the relationship between explicit attitude and PA, and explicit attitude and PA intention. Methods At baseline (T0) and one (T1) and three months (T2) thereafter, students’ ( N = 340) PA levels, intention, explicit attitudes, further PA determinants, e.g. self-efficacy, were assessed. Implicit attitudes towards PA were assessed by means of a tailored Single-Category Implicit Association task. Results IED was present but weak. Multiple hierarchical regressions revealed that IED did not moderate the relationship between explicit attitudes and PA or intention. Yet, IED was negatively associated with T0-PA and T1-PA. Conclusion The study revealed the important insight that IED is detrimental for PA. Interventions targeting attitudes to increase PA, should ensure that implicit and explicit attitudes regarding PA are concordant.

Mindfulness is not associated with dissonant attitudes but enhances the ability to cope with them

“…An additional finding of the present study was that IED was related to behavior at all three measurement points, which was also the case in former studies [29,30,[32][33][34]69]. In the current study, the relationship was negative.…”

“…In the present study, the non-acceptance of dissonance had a positive and thereby desirable effect on the intention to reduce RMC. Future studies should investigate in which contexts dissonance results in healthy behaviors, as it was the case in the present study, and in which contexts dissonance results in rather unhealthy behaviors, as demonstrated in former studies [32][33][34]. Shedding light on these questions would allow interventions to consciously induce dissonance in order to achieve certain behavior changes.…”

“…Similarly to dissonant self-relevant constructs, dissonant attitudes are experienced as unpleasant [29] and lead to difficulties in functioning, which individuals are highly motivated to diminish. More importantly, this dissonance has an impact on (health) behaviors [29,[32][33][34]. Participants with more dissonant implicit and explicit attitudes towards a person were more motivated to engage in additional information processing regarding that person [29], which was presumably an attempt to decrease dissonance.…”

“…Participants with more dissonant implicit and explicit attitudes towards a person were more motivated to engage in additional information processing regarding that person [29], which was presumably an attempt to decrease dissonance. Also, more dissonant implicit and explicit attitudes towards physical activity are associated with lower levels of physical activity [32]. Individuals are assumingly uncertain about whether to move towards the behavior or not.…”

Testing Attitudes, Social Desirability and Behavioral Regulations as Moderators of Implicit-Explicit Exercise Cognition Discrepancies in Iranian Students

“…One study found positive automatic evaluations between exercise and social/appearance outcomes in adolescents but no similar relationship between exercise and desirable or undesirable health outcomes (22). Social desirability is another possible moderator to consider within the exercise domain (7,23). It is possible that explicit evaluations of exercise among youth are in uenced by social desirability althoguh several reserachers have found that social desirability was not a signi cant moderator among adults(6, 7).…”