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The effects of exercise advertising on self-efficacy and decisional balance
1Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education, Wilfrid Laurier University Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. tberry@wlu.ca
Objectives:
To investigate the effects of exercise advertising on self-efficacy and decisional balance for changing exercise behavior.
Methods:
One hundred seventy-four university students (females = 108; males = 66) watched a video that contained health, appearance, or control advertising and completed stage of change, exercise self-efficacy, and decisional balance questionnaires.
Results:
There was a significant condition by gender interaction indicating that men in the appearance condition had lower self-efficacy than did females. Health promotion advertising did not have any effect.
Conclusions:
This study provides evidence that the message in appearance-based advertising that men should be muscular may be detrimental.
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