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Published on: April 18, 2017
Question-behaviour effect: a randomised controlled trial of asking intention in the interrogative or declarative form
Gaston Godin1, Ariane Bélanger-Gravel, Lydi-Anne Vézina-Im
1Research Group on Behaviours and Health, Laval University, Laval, Canada. gaston.godin@fsi.ulaval.ca
Objective:
This study investigated the question-behaviour effect of measuring intention in the interrogative or declarative form combined or not with a measure of moral norm.
Design:
A sample of 762 participants was randomised according to a 2 × 2 factorial design.
Main Outcome Measures:
Cognitions were assessed at the baseline, and physical activity behaviour was self-reported three weeks later.
Results:
At baseline, there were no significant differences on the studied variables. An ANOVA showed a significant interaction effect between the two experimental conditions (p = 0.04). Post-hoc contrast analyses showed that the interrogative intention-only condition significantly differed from the declarative intention-only (d = 0.21, p = 0.03) and interrogative intention + moral norm (d = 0.22, p = 0.03) conditions.
Conclusion:
Results suggest that self-posed questions about a future action increases the likelihood of doing it when these questions are not accompanied by measures of moral norm. This provides support for using introspective self-talk to favour the adoption of behaviour.
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