A Tale of Two Frames
A Study on the Effects of Framed Health Messages on Autonomous Motivation for Physical Activity
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.29173/eureka28753Abstract
Background. Physical activity has been shown to decrease the risk of a variety of diseases. However, recent studies indicate that only 15% of Canadian adults engage in adequate levels of physical activity. As such, an area of interest for physical activity promotion has been the use of persuasive messages, specifically, the use of framing effects as a method of persuasive communication. This study uses the Self-Determination Theory (SDT) to investigate the effects of framed health messages on autonomous motivation.
Methods. 107 York University undergraduate students (N=107; 51 females, 56 males) ages 18 – 30 were recruited from the school of Kinesiology and Health Sciences. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three message groups: gain-framed, loss-framed and control. They were given and instructed to read the messages. Afterwards, the participants’ autonomous motivation levels were measured.
Results. 68.2% of the participants were considered physically active. No significant difference in autonomous regulation levels were observed between the three frame groups. However, a significant interaction was shown between participants’ gender and frame condition; among the female participants, levels of autonomous regulation were significantly higher in the loss frame group, when compared to the control group.
Conclusion. Based on the results of this study, women who were exposed to loss-framed messages tended to demonstrate higher levels of autonomy. Similar framing effects were not evident in males.
Downloads
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2020 Eureka
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
By signing the Eureka publication agreement, authors agree to the following:
- The work has not been previously published in any format;
- Eureka is granted the royalty-free right to publish and disseminate the work in current and future formats;
- The work will be published in Eureka under a Creative Commons license. Eureka encourages authors to publish the work under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0) that allows others to distribute, tweak, and build upon the work, even commercially, as long as they credit the Author(s) for the original creation.
Authors may however choose to have their work distributed under any of the Creative Commons licenses currently available by specifying their preferred license in the publication agreement. A description of the Creative Commons licenses is available here: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/
- Authors retain their copyright, including the right to subsequently publish or disseminate their work elsewhere, provided that they make reasonable efforts to ensure that the publication in Eureka is acknowledged.
- Authors agree to determine, prior to publication, whether it is necessary to obtain permissions from any third party who hold rights with respect to any photographs, illustrations, drawings, text, or any other material (“third party work”) to be published in connection with your work. Copyright permission will not be necessary if the use is determined to be fair dealing, if the work is in the public domain, or if the rights-holder has granted a Creative Commons or similar license.
- All co-authors and investigators (e.g. faculty supervisors) with claims to the intellectual property have read and signed the agreement, thereby providing their consent for the submission to be published in Eureka.
Unless otherwise specified, authors guarantee that all parts of the submission are the author’s original work. Submissions containing evidence of plagiarism will not be eligible for publication.