Exercising, Expectation and Apps

Exercising has positive health benefits. A way to perform physical activity is the use of mobile exercise apps. Research often focusses on the influence of health apps on exercise. However, in order to benefit from exercise apps, people first need to get motivated to use exercise apps. As previous exercise behaviour can predict future exercise behaviour an unexplored question was formed by changing the variables and to investigate if exercising has an influence on the expectation to use exercise apps.

To test the hypotheses, participants were randomly distributed between two experimental condition groups (physically active and inactive). After performing a physically active or inactive task participants reviewed six app overview pages (physically active and inactive apps). No statistical evidence for the expectation to use an active or inactive app in combination with the experimental condition group (active or inactive for 10 minutes) was found. However, independent of app type there is a significant effect found in the expectation to use an app and the interaction between group and gender. This implies a reverse effect of being active or inactive between genders. Females have a higher expectation to use and rating after exercising for 10 minutes compared with being physically inactive.

The full paper is provided below.