DO DIFFERENT TYPES OF MOTIVATIONS TO EXERCISE IMPACT THE WAY INDIVIDUALS PERCEIVE EXERCISE?

Abstract

The present study examined the impact that health and appearance motivations to exercise have on exercise perception as well as how social media may affect these motivations and perceptions. Previous research on construal level theory (CLT) has found that there are two levels of construal: high and low. Lower levels of construal are associated with concrete categories that are more specific, whereas, higher levels of construal are associated with abstract categories that are broad. Little research on motivations to exercise considers the impact on what is thought of as exercise. This study applied CLT as a theoretical lens to understand these different connections. It was hypothesized that participants high in appearance motivation would have a narrower categorization (low-level construal) of exercise activities and participants high in health motivations would have a broader (high-level construal) categorization of exercise activities. It was also hypothesized that individuals who spend more time watching fitness content on social media will have higher appearance motivations (low-level construal). Participants completed an online survey about exercise, their motivations to exercise, and fitness content on social media. A correlational analysis indicated that motivations to exercise was not associated with perceptions of exercise category breadth. Additionally, the results did not support the second hypothesis that individuals with high social media fitness exposure will be more appearance motivated; results revealed that there was a strong positive correlation between motivations to exercise and a strong positive correlation between structured and unstructured exercises. It is critical to continue research on the impact motivations to exercise have on how exercise is perceived because fitness has become such a prominent part of society.