Rennie, L.J., Harris, P.R. and Webb, T.L. orcid.org/0000-0001-9320-0068 (2016) Visualizing actions from a third-person perspective: effects on health behavior and the moderating role of behavior difficulty. Journal of Applied Social Psychology. ISSN 0021-9029
Abstract
Visualizing behavior from a third-person (vs. first-person) perspective can produce stronger motivation to enact the behavior. However, the effects of perspective on health behaviors have been mixed. Hypothesizing that the difficulty of the visualized behavior might moderate the effect of perspective, two experiments manipulated the difficulty of the visualized behaviors (fruit/vegetable consumption; exercise) plus perspective and subsequently measured motivation (Experiments 1 and 2) and behavior (Experiment 2). In both experiments, the third-person perspective produced stronger motivation to perform the easier, but not the more difficult, behavior. This effect extended to behavior in Experiment 2. Under certain conditions, encouraging people to visualize behavior from a third-person perspective could represent a useful and cost-effective means of promoting health behavior change
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2016 Wiley. This is an author produced version of a paper subsequently published in Journal of Applied Social Psychology. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | visualization; perspective; motivation; health behavior change |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Science (Sheffield) > Department of Psychology (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 14 Dec 2016 14:22 |
Last Modified: | 28 Sep 2017 11:33 |
Published Version: | http://doi.org/10.1111/jasp.12410 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Wiley |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1111/jasp.12410 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:109480 |