(How) Does Affect Influence the Formation of Habits in Exercise?

Abstract

Objectives: Habitually instigated exercise is thought to increase health behavior maintenance. Previous research has explored several aspects of habit formation. However, there is a lack of longitudinal research investigating affective determinants, especially post-exercise affective states. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate (a) if behavior frequency will enhance automaticity, (b) if positive affect will enhance automaticity, and (c) if positive affect will moderate the relationship between behavior frequency and automaticity. Methods: 226 participants (64% females, mean age 24 years) who attended weekly sports and gym classes at two universities were followed for 13 weeks. Class attendance was documented on a weekly basis (behavior frequency) during the semester. Before, during and immediately after each class, participants filled in the Feeling Scale (affective valence). Furthermore, at the beginning of each class, they answered a question about their automaticity in arriving at the decision to attend the class (instigation habit). We used a two-level modeling approach to predict subsequent automaticity by the different constructs at the previous attendance. Results: The cumulative frequency of prior class attendance did not significantly enhance the automaticity of the decision to re-attend the class. There were significant effects of valence on automaticity on the between-subject level, i.e., a one-point higher mean valence score was associated with a 0.62 point increase in automaticity (p = 0.001). No moderation effects of affect on the association between behavior frequency and automaticity were observed. Conclusion: Behavior repetition, albeit not significant, and positive affective states at the end of an exercise class may be beneficial in building exercise instigation habits. Practitioners and researchers alike may thus want to emphasize the importance of behavior repetition and affective response for health behavior maintenance.

Examining the role of affective states in relation to exercise intentions and participation in extra-curricular exercise classes at university: A repeated measurement observational study

“…Habit was not included in the presented analyses. But we found support for affective valence post-exercise as well as an increase in valence during exercise promoting the development of automaticity of the decision to attend an exercise class in a previous analysis ( Weyland et al, 2020 ). The possible indirect effect of affective valence on behavior via habit strength postulated by the PAAM should be tested in future studies.…”

A Short Version of the Physical Activity Enjoyment Scale: Development and Psychometric Properties

“…Moreover, while many adolescents start PA programs to improve their health and lose weight, the rate of dropouts is high [9]. Specifically, regarding the maintenance of PA, researchers emphasize the role of affective processes [10][11][12]. Notably, there is a large volume of studies describing the critical role of enjoyment in PA [13][14][15][16][17][18][19].…”

Affective and Enjoyment Responses to Sprint Interval Exercise at Different Hypoxia Levels

“…Although the efficacy of SIT under hypoxia in improving exercise capacity and health status has been well-documented in the existing literature, affective responses to this type of training strategy have not been examined. Affective responses (i.e., enjoyment, affect) are exercise-induced feelings that potentially associate with exercise automaticity (i.e., willingness to exercise) and future exercise adherence [7][8][9]. Despite that adverse affective responses could more likely appear in performing exercise with supramaximal intensity according to the dual-mode theory [10], recent reviews suggested that, in most cases, enjoyment responses to HIIT were similar compared to moderate intensity continuous trainings when performed in normoxia [11][12][13].…”