Abstract
Action planning has consistently been demonstrated as a strategy for increasing physical activity participation. However, little attention has been paid to what influences the behavioural manifestation of planning. Our purpose was to promote the behaviour of action planning through messaging. Specifically, prospect theory was the foundation for the message framing approach to determine whether gain- or loss-framed messages fostered action plan creation. Our design was an online experiment with a one week follow-up. Participants (N=227) were randomized to either gain-framed or loss-framed action planning message groups. Post-message, participants were given the choice of creating plans. One week later, participants were emailed a link with the same choice. This choice of action planning or not was the behavioural measure. Although no group differences were found after reading the message, the gain-framed message group were more likely to create an action plan (35%) than the loss-framed message group (21%) at one week follow-up, χ2(1)= 60.1, p = .01. The gain-framed message group sustained their action planning rate while the loss-framed message group’s rate declined from post-message reading (49%) to one week follow-up (21%), McNemar χ2(1)= 21.12, p < .001. Overall, a gain-framed message advantage was found for action planning being sustained one week post-message exposure. This study is the first to investigate a prospective influence of message framing in promoting the behaviour of action planning. Future studies should investigate the longevity of effects of gain-framed, action-planning messages to determine whether these effects can influence individuals to follow through with their planned activity.Acknowledgments: This study was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and Queen University's Principal's Development Fund and Senate Advisory Research Committee grant.