Researchers in a study state that competition proved to be more valuable than friendly support in providing motivation to exercise.
Physical activity is a huge problem in the US with large chunks of the population failing to meet exercise recommendations. As we all know, motivation for exercise is important to achieve consistent results.
To learn about motivation for exercise, researchers at the Annenburg School of Communication at the University of Pennsylvania conducted a randomized controlled trial in Philadelphia which involved a group of 790 students.
Centola and Jingwen Zhang, Ph.D., the primary author of the study assigned the students to an 11 week social media based exercise program which was managed through a custom website. The students were offered weekly exercise classes at the University’s fitness center. They received fitness mentoring and nutrition advice. Prizes were awarded to those who participated in the most exercise.
Researchers split the participants into four groups to find out how different social networks would influence their exercise. The four groups included individual competition, team support, team competition, and a control group.
As for each group, as a Penn University article explains it, “participants could see exercise leaderboards listing anonymous program members, and earned prizes based on their own success attending classes. For each team group, participants were assigned to a unit. In the team support group, they could chat online and encourage team members to exercise, with rewards going to the most successful teams with the most class attendance. In addition, those in the team competition group could see a leaderboard of other teams and their team standing. Participants in the control group could use the website and go to any class, but were not given any social connections on the website; prizes in this group were based on individual success taking classes.”
So Which Group Exercised More?
The groups involving competition motivated the participants to exercise substantially more than the other groups. In fact, attendance rates were 90 percent higher in the competitive groups compared to the control group. There was no substantial difference between the individual and team competition groups.
Interestingly, the number of workouts per weak in the team support group was half of the exercise rate in the competitive groups.
Why is Competition a Better Motivator?
Centola told the university that, “Supportive groups can backfire because they draw attention to members who are less active, which can create a downward spiral of participation,” and that “Competitive groups frame relationships in terms of goal-setting by the most active members. These relationships help to motivate exercise because they give people higher expectations for their own levels of performance.”
As is evident in the Olympics, the spirit of competition inspires everyone towards greatness. When trying to win, participants all try to do better than each other and most notably, they all work to do better than whoever is doing the best. This means everyone is striving towards the highest standard.
Centola added, “In a competitive setting, each person’s activity raises the bar for everyone else. Social support is the opposite: a ratcheting-down can happen. If people stop exercising, it gives permission for others to stop, too, and the whole thing can unravel fairly quickly.
History tells us that various societies have benefited from being competitive, improving their abilities and staying strong for challenges that met them. The Vikings and ancient Greeks highly valued competition as a way to increase skills and fitness and make progress in their cultures.
Many would agree that Americans and their remarkable ascent as a wealthy nation relied in great part on the spirit of competition through an appreciation and admiration of hard work, creativity and innovation. Playing and participating in sporting events and all sorts of competitions are huge in the US and aside from being entertaining they celebrate what humans are capable of.
Care to Participate in Friendly Competition?
Studies like this one may encourage people to add some healthy competition into their households, communities, and support groups. Companies may be looking into using this data to add a level of competition to corporate wellness programs.
Most would agree that friendly competition is preferable over any unfriendly competition. Perhaps creating some friendly competition is a way to ensure we exercise more and push ourselves closer to what we are capable of?
Photo Credit: Darby Browning (Pixabay) and Keith (Pixabay)
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