Implementation intentions promote acting on one's good intentions. But does specifying where and when to act also suffice when goals involve complex change that requires not merely initiating a ...behavior but rather substituting a habit with a new response? In a pilot study and two experiments, the authors investigated the efficacy of implementation intentions to replace unhealthy snacks with healthy snacks by linking different types of cues for unhealthy snacking (if-part) to healthy snacking (then-part). The pilot study identified cues for unhealthy snacking, differentiating between situational (where/when) and motivational (why) cues. Studies 1 and 2 tested the efficacy of implementation intentions that specified either situational or motivational cues in altering snacking habits. Results showed that implementation intentions specifying motivational cues decreased unhealthy snack consumption whereas the classic specification of where and when did not. Extending previous research, for complex behavior change “why” seems more important than “where and when.”
Lifestyle changes, especially regarding diet quality and physical activity, are important in the management of type 2 diabetes (T2D). This mixed-methods study explores self-initiated lifestyle ...changes in patients with T2D who followed a periodic fasting-mimicking diet (FMD).
Quantitative data were obtained from the Fasting In diabetes Treatment trial (November 2018 to August 2021) in which 100 participants with T2D, using metformin only or no medication, were randomised to receive a monthly 5-day FMD for twelve months next to usual care, or usual care only. Diet quality and physical activity questionnaires were completed at baseline, six and twelve months. Changes over time were analysed using linear mixed models. Focus groups were organized with FMD participants to explore experiences regarding self-initiated lifestyle changes. The qualitative data was analysed using the Theoretical Domains Framework.
Questionnaires were available from 49 FMD participants and 43 controls. No differences in diet quality were found. Total physical activity in the FMD participants changed from 34.6 to 38.5 h per week (h/wk) from baseline to twelve months, while in controls it changed from 34.9 to 29.0 h/wk (between group difference, p = 0.03). In six focus groups with FMD participants (n = 20), individual participants perceived the FMD as an encouragement for (minor) lifestyle changes. There were no barriers to behaviour change related to the FMD. Important facilitators of healthy behaviour were an increase in awareness of the impact of lifestyle on health (knowledge), better physical fitness (physical) and health improvement (reinforcement). Facilitators unrelated to the FMD included family support (social influences) and opportunities in the neighbourhood (environmental context and resources), while barriers unrelated to the FMD were experiencing health problems (physical) and social events (social influences).
Using an FMD for five consecutive days per month did not affect diet quality in between FMD periods in quantitative analysis, but increased the number of hours per week spent on physical activity. Qualitative analysis revealed self-initiated improvements in both diet quality and physical activity in individual participants using an FMD. Healthcare professionals could use an FMD programme as a 'teachable moment' to stimulate additional lifestyle changes.
ClinicalTrials.gov; NCT03811587. Registered 22 January 2019.
Emotional eating (i.e., overeating in response to negative affect) is a commonly accepted explanation for eating behaviors that are not in line with personal eating-norms. However, the empirical ...evidence for a causal link between self-reported emotional eating and overeating is mixed. The present study tested an alternative hypothesis stating that high emotional eating scores are indicative of a susceptibility to use negative affect as a confabulated, post-hoc reason to explain overeating.
Female students (N = 46) participated in a ‘taste-test’ and came back to the lab a day later to receive feedback that they either ate too much (norm-violation condition) or an acceptable amount of food (control condition), whereafter emotional eating was assessed. Negative affect was measured several times throughout the study.
In the norm-violation condition, participants with high emotional eating scores retrospectively rated their affect prior to eating as more negative than participants with low emotional eating scores. In the control condition, no effect of emotional score on affect ratings was found.
For some individuals emotional eating scores may represent a tendency to retrospectively attribute overeating to negative affect. This could explain the lack of consistent findings for a link between self-reported emotional eating and overeating.
Nudges are defined as small adjustments in the choice architecture that help people perform desirable behavior. How nudges interact with individuals' motivation has not been studied empirically. We ...conducted three studies with different types of defaults in three different behavioral domains and investigated how defaults and different types of motivation affect choice outcomes. In Study 1, we investigated the effectiveness of a default to stimulate healthy eating choices implemented in a hypothetical online supermarket setting. In Study 2, we used a scenario in which participants could choose from a list of green amenities (either preselected or not). In Study 3, we asked participants whether they wanted to participate in a basic or longer version of our questionnaire, with the longer version option set as the default in the nudge condition. Across these three studies we show that defaults are effective in promoting desirable behavior and that goal strivings and autonomous motivation have additional positive main effects. We did not find evidence that controlled motivation affected behavioral outcomes. Exploratory analyses revealed that amotivation negatively affected behavior, but the measure had poor reliability. No significant interaction effects were observed. Together, these studies imply that both defaults and motivation have main effects on behavior, such that the default sets the anchor from which people can adjust according to the type and strength of their motivation. Implications for the practice and ethics of nudging are discussed.
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CEKLJ, FFLJ, NUK, ODKLJ, PEFLJ
Contrary to lay intuition, counteractive control theory posits that tempting food cues can help individuals to act in accordance with their long-term dieting goal. However, studies have shown that ...temptations trigger goal-directed behavior only in successful but not in unsuccessful self-regulators. The aim of the present study was to test whether it is possible to create facilitated temptation–goal associations in unsuccessful dieters using implementation intentions (e.g., “If I see or smell chocolate then I will follow my goal to diet”) and whether this indeed stimulates more successful self-regulation. It was found that implementation intentions linking a temptation to a dieting goal lead to self-perceived improved resistance to (Study 1) as well as reduced consumption (Study 2) of tempting snacks compared to a control condition. Moreover, Study 2 revealed that the reduced snack consumption was indeed related to facilitated temptation–goal associations in participants who had formed implementation intentions.
The present studies tested the effectiveness of implementation intentions with an “if situation, then not habitual response” structure. Based on ironic process theory and the literature on the ...processing of negations, it was expected that these “negation implementation intentions” would, ironically, strengthen the habit (situation—response association) one aims to break. In line with the hypotheses, forming negation implementation intentions resulted in cognitive ironic rebound effects as well as behavioral ironic rebound effects compared to an intention only condition or a replacement implementation intention. Additionally, it was found that negation implementation intentions are most likely to result in ironic rebound effects when the habit to be negated is strong. Although implementation intentions are generally highly effective in facilitating behavior change even when this involves breaking unwanted habits, the present research suggests that they are ineffective when they have a negating structure.
Implementation intentions aimed at changing unwanted habits require the identification of personally relevant cues triggering the habitual response in order to be effective. To facilitate successful ...implementation intention formation, in the present study, planning was combined with cue-monitoring, a novel way to gain insight into triggers for unhealthy snacking. It was tested whether keeping a cue-monitoring diary and tailoring implementation intentions accordingly improves plan effectiveness. A 2 Monitoring (cue-monitoring, control) × 2 Planning (implementation intention, goal intention) between subjects design was adopted. Participants (N = 161) monitored their unhealthy snacking behaviour for a week using either a cue-monitoring or a control diary. Participants then formulated a goal intention or an implementation intention tailored to their personal cue. Snacking frequency and caloric intake from unhealthy snacks were examined using a seven-day snack diary. The results did not indicate an interaction but yielded a main effect of Monitoring. Cue-monitoring either or not combined with implementation intentions reduced unhealthy snacking behaviour compared with control. Findings emphasise the effectiveness of cue-monitoring, suggesting that on the short term, cue-monitoring suffices to decrease unhealthy snacking, without additional benefit from planning. Future research should examine whether supplementing cue-monitoring with implementation intentions is required to establish long-term behaviour change maintenance.
The aim of the present research is to examine the relation between depletion sensitivity – a novel construct referring to the speed or ease by which one's self-control resources are drained – and ...snack purchase behavior. In addition, interactions between depletion sensitivity and the goal to lose weight on snack purchase behavior were explored. Participants included in the study were instructed to report every snack they bought over the course of one week. The dependent variables were the number of healthy and unhealthy snacks purchased. The results of the present study demonstrate that depletion sensitivity predicts the amount of unhealthy (but not healthy) snacks bought. The more sensitive people are to depletion, the more unhealthy snacks they buy. Moreover, there was some tentative evidence that this relation is more pronounced for people with a weak as opposed to a strong goal to lose weight, suggesting that a strong goal to lose weight may function as a motivational buffer against self-control failures. All in all, these findings provide evidence for the external validity of depletion sensitivity and the relevance of this construct in the domain of eating behavior.
•The relation between depletion sensitivity and snack purchases was examined.•Depletion sensitivity predicts the amount of unhealthy (not healthy) snacks bought.•The more sensitive people are to depletion, the more unhealthy snacks they buy.•Weight loss goals may function as motivational buffer against self-control failure.
Diabetes patients often fail to adhere to self-management activities, such as losing weight by exercising and dieting. The present study tested the efficacy of a minimalist intervention consisting of ...only the self-regulation strategy 'mental contrasting' (Oettingen, G. (2000). Expectancy effects on behavior depend on self-regulatory thought. Social Cognition, 18, 101-129) in promoting these self-management activities among a clinical sample of type 2 diabetes patients (N = 64). Half of the participants were assigned to a positive indulging condition (fantasising about positive outcomes of losing weight) and the other half of the participants were assigned to a mental contrasting condition (fantasising about positive outcomes of losing weight and then contrasting these fantasies with obstacles in the present reality). Results showed that, one month later, participants in the mental contrasting condition had improved their diabetes self-management, and in particular their dieting behaviour, by a larger extent than participants who merely indulged in the positive future. It was concluded that although more elaborate interventions may yield stronger results, adding a mental contrasting exercise to their usual care may be a highly feasible, low-cost alternative to promote diabetes self-management.
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