Exploring implicit approach biases in the exercise domain

Introduction: Engaging in regular exercise is vital for living a healthy lifestyle, yet many individuals fail to reach national recommended guidelines. It is therefore important for research to identify both conscious and nonconscious cognitive processes that are likely to be involved in motivating exercise engagement. The present study explored whether exercise engagement is associated with biased implicit approach-avoidance memory associations and explored whether this implicit bias correlated with self-reported habit strength. Methods: Participants (N = 110) completed an approach-avoidance variant of the Implicit-Association Test, along with explicit measures of exercise behaviour, intentions, and habit strength. Results: Results revealed that an implicit approach bias for exercise cues. However, the strength of this approach bias was not associated with self-reported leisure-time exercise behaviour or with exercise habit strength. Only explicit intentions and habit strength were found to positively predict leisure-time exercise behaviour.
Conclusions: This study further highlights the importance of taking into account both controlled and automatic cognitive processes in understanding leisure-time exercise behaviour. Further research is needed to provide greater insight into the role of approach-avoidance associations in the exercise domain.