Résumé
While trending norm messages (Mortensen et al., 2019) are effective in influencing on-campus activity behaviour (Anderson et al., 2024), less is known about personal moderators of the norm/behaviour relationship. One personal factor that could be important concerns one’s intuitive understanding of how the mind and body relate, with mind and body perceived as being either connected (monism) or disconnected (dualism). Of interest, those holding monists’ beliefs have an increased probability of engaging in health-positive behaviours (Ku et al., 2025), which suggests that monists could react more favourably toward trending norm messages about health. The purpose of this study was to examine whether monism/dualism beliefs would moderate the relationship between trending norm messages and on-campus physical activity (PA) and sitting intentions (SB). In an online survey, participants (N=182) were randomly assigned to receive either a trending normative (SN, n=94) or control (AC, n=88) message. Following message receipt, participants completed future on-campus PA and SB intentions. A MANOVA interaction effect (p= 0.006) emerged, with post hoc tests revealing that the messages significantly impacted SB intentions (p= 0.004). Individuals with stronger monist beliefs receiving the norm message reported greater intentions to reduce on-campus sitting compared to those who received the attention control message. However, differences between the norm and attention control message for intentions to increase PA were not significantly different for monists/dualists. These results provide preliminary evidence suggesting that mind-body beliefs may serve as a personal moderator of the relationship between trending norm messages and on-campus SB.
