Effect of the Affective and Cognitive Benefits of Exercise in Instagram on Users' Physical Activity

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Ph.D. Student of Sport Sciences, Tabriz University, Tabriz, Iran

2 Assistant Professor of Sport Sciences, Tabriz University, Tabriz, Iran.

3 Associate Professor of Sport Sciences, Tabriz University, Tabriz, Iran

4 Assistant Professor of Cognitive Sciences, Tabriz University, Tabriz, Iran

Abstract

The present research examined the effects of the affective and cognitive benefits of exercise in Instagram on users' physical activity through two consecutive studies. The results of the first study showed that the designed content provided sufficient cognitive and affective benefits. Similarly, the second study found that after adjusting the basic PA level, the affective and cognitive groups had more PA than the control group, and the cognitive group had more than the control group. Consecutively, 45.75% of subjects who were inactive were turned into active after one week of being taught of the benefits of exercise, with 71.43% in the affective group and 28.57% in the cognitive group. In terms of gender, 84.12% were women and 15.78% were men. As a result, visual exposure to sports participation might have led to an increase in positive feelings among users, especially women, which may have led to increased PA levels. The results of this study are useful for health professionals who are trying to communicate information about the benefits of exercise to their target audience based on a combination of evidence, gender, and PA level.

Keywords

Main Subjects


 Cameron, L.D., & Chan, C.K. (2008). Designing health communications: Harnessing the power of affect, imagery, and self‐regulation. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 2(1), 262-282.
Centola, D. (2013). Social media and the science of health behavior. Circulation, 127(21), 2135-2144.
Chang, Y., & Choi, S. (2014). Effects of seductive details evidenced by gaze duration. Neurobiology of learning and memory, 109, 131-138.
Chang, Y., & Choi, S. (2014). Effects of seductive details evidenced by gaze duration. Neurobiology of learning and memory, 109, 131-138.
Conner, M., Rhodes, R.E., Morris, B., McEachan, R., & Lawton, R. (2011). Changing exercise through targeting affective or cognitive attitudes. Psychology and Health, 26(2), 133-149.
Davies, B., Turner, M., & Udell, J. (2020). Add a comment… how fitspiration and body positive captions attached to social media images influence the mood and body esteem of young female instagram users. Body Image, 33, 101-105.
Durau, J., Diehl, S., & Terlutter, R. (2022). Motivate me to exercise with you: The effects of social media fitness influencers on users’ intentions to engage in physical activity and the role of user gender. Digital Health, 8, 20552076221102769.
Emerson, J.A., Dunsiger, S., Lee, H.H., Kahler, C.W., Bock, B., & Williams, D.M. (2022). Daily instrumental and affective attitudes about exercise: An ecological momentary assessment study. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 56(7), 726-736.
Fung, I.C.-H., Blankenship, E.B., Ahweyevu, J.O., Cooper, L.K., Duke, C.H., Carswell, S.L., . . . Liang, H. (2020). Public health implications of image-based social media: A systematic review of instagram, pinterest, tumblr, and flickr. The Permanente Journal, 24.
Gilbert, G., Williamson, C., Richards, J., Collyer, T.A., & Kelly, P. (2021). Do framed mental health messages on social media influence university students’ motivation for physical activity? International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(16), 8671.
Godin, G., & Shephard, R. (1985). A simple method to assess exercise behavior in the community. Can J Appl Sport Sci, 10(3), 141-146.
Goodyear, V.A., Wood, G., Skinner, B., & Thompson, J.L. (2021). The effect of social media interventions on physical activity and dietary behaviours in young people and adults: A systematic review. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 18(1), 1-18.
Hendry, N.A., Hartung, C., & Welch, R. (2022). Health education, social media, and tensions of authenticity in the ‘influencer pedagogy’of health influencer ashy bines. Learning, media and technology, 47(4), 427-439.
Hevel, D.J., Amorose, A.J., Lagally, K.M., Rinaldi-Miles, A., & Pierce, S. (2019). Testing the effects of messaging on physical activity motivation in active and non-active adults. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 43, 333-342.
Johnston, C., & Davis, W.E. (2019). Motivating exercise through social media: Is a picture always worth a thousand words? Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 41, 119-126.
Lawton, R., Conner, M., & McEachan, R. (2009). Desire or reason: Predicting health behaviors from affective and cognitive attitudes. Health Psychology, 28(1), 56.
Liao, Y., Chou, C.-P., Huh, J., Leventhal, A., & Dunton, G. (2017). Associations of affective responses during free-living physical activity and future physical activity levels: An ecological momentary assessment study. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 24, 513-519.
Lithopoulos, A., Rathwell, S., & Young, B.W. (2015). Examining the effects of gain-framed messages on the activation and elaboration of possible sport selves in middle-aged adults. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 27(2), 140-155.
Milton, K., Bauman, A.E., Faulkner, G., Hastings, G., Bellew, W., Williamson, C., & Kelly, P. (2020). Maximising the impact of global and national physical activity guidelines: The critical role of communication strategies. British journal of sports medicine, 54(24), 1463-1467.
Morris, B., Lawton, R., McEachan, R., Hurling, R., & Conner, M. (2016). Changing self-reported physical activity using different types of affectively and cognitively framed health messages, in a student population. Psychology, Health & Medicine, 21(2), 198-207.
Niu, Z., Jeong, D.C., Brickman, J., Nam, Y., Liu, S., & Stapleton, J.L. (2020). A picture worth a thousand texts? Investigating the influences of visual appeals in a text message-based health intervention. Journal of health communication, 25(3), 204-213.
Organization, W.H. (2019). Global action plan on physical activity 2018-2030: More active people for a healthier world: World Health Organization.
Raggatt, M., Wright, C.J., Carrotte, E., Jenkinson, R., Mulgrew, K., Prichard, I., & Lim, M.S. (2018). “I aspire to look and feel healthy like the posts convey”: Engagement with fitness inspiration on social media and perceptions of its influence on health and wellbeing. BMC public health, 18, 1-11.
Reifegerste, D., & Rossmann, C. (2017). Promoting physical activity with group pictures. Affiliation-based visual communication for high-risk populations. Health Communication, 32(2), 161-168.
Rothman, A.J., & Updegraff, J.A. (2010). Specifying when and how gain-and loss-framed messages motivate healthy behavior: An integrated approach. Perspectives on framing, 257-278.
Sirriyeh, R., Lawton, R., & Ward, J. (2010). Physical activity and adolescents: An exploratory randomized controlled trial investigating the influence of affective and instrumental text messages. British journal of health psychology, 15(4), 825-840.
Song, J., Han, K., Lee, D., & Kim, S.-W. (2018). “Is a picture really worth a thousand words?”: A case study on classifying user attributes on instagram. PloS one, 13(10), e0204938.
Tiggemann, M., Anderberg, I., & Brown, Z. (2020). # loveyourbody: The effect of body positive instagram captions on women’s body image. Body image, 33, 129-136.
Tricás-Vidal, H.J., Vidal-Peracho, M.C., Lucha-López, M.O., Hidalgo-García, C., Monti-Ballano, S., Márquez-Gonzalvo, S., & Tricás-Moreno, J.M. (2022). Impact of fitness influencers on the level of physical activity performed by instagram users in the united states of america: Analytical cross-sectional study. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(21), 14258.
Vaterlaus, J.M., Patten, E.V., Roche, C., & Young, J.A. (2015). # gettinghealthy: The perceived influence of social media on young adult health behaviors. Computers in Human Behavior, 45, 151-157.
Vogel, E.A., Rose, J.P., Roberts, L.R., & Eckles, K. (2014). Social comparison, social media, and self-esteem. Psychology of popular media culture, 3(4), 206.
Williamson, C., Baker, G., Tomasone, J.R., Bauman, A., Mutrie, N., Niven, A., . . . Rigby, B. (2021). The physical activity messaging framework (pamf) and checklist (pamc): International consensus statement and user guide. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 18(1), 1-12.
Zillmann, D. (1999). Exemplification theory: Judging the whole by some of its parts. Media psychology, 1(1), 69-94.