Falk et al., 2015: Affirming values increased brain activity related to positive valuation and decreased sedentary behavior among sedentary adults over a month
Reference:
Falk, E. B., O’Donnell, M. B., Cascio, C. N., Tinney, F., Kang, Y., Lieberman, M. D., ... & Strecher, V. J. (2015). Self-affirmation alters the brain’s response to health messages and subsequent behavior change. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(7), 1977-1982.
Download PDFSummary:
Sedentary adults, mostly overweight, completed a values-affirmation exercise and received a health message focused on the benefits of increasing activity and decreasing sedentary time once per day for a month. As compared to a control condition that received the same health messages but did not complete the affirmations, those in the treatment condition showed less sedentary behavior over the month, as assessed by wrist worn accelerometers. In addition, the initial affirmation, completed in an fMRI scanner, led to increased activity in the ventromedial prefontal cortext (VMPFC), a brain region associated with self-related processing and positive valuation.
Psychological Process:
What Desired Meaning is At Stake?
What is the Person Trying to Understand?
To See the Self as AdequateApproach to Desired Meaning
What about it?
Remedy Threats to Self-Integrity that Undermine FunctioningHow?
Psychological Question Addressed
Am I under threat, because I am doing something that harms my health?Am I under threat, because I am doing something that harms my health?Psychological Question Addressed
Am I under threat, because I am doing something that harms my health?Psychological Process 2:
Psychological Process 3:
Social Area:
Health
Intervention Technique:
Active reflection, values-affirmation