Gyms - fear tops hope as workout motivation
Want to get motivated to go to the gym? Then think of yourself as fat and flabby rather than looking utterly gorgeous. That's the conclusion of research from the University of Bath that found that fear of looking ugly is a stronger motivation for keeping people going to the gym than the hope of looking attractive.
The researchers interviewed 281 male and female undergraduates and got half to imagine a physically unattractive version of themselves that they might turn into.They then asked this group to either imagine a scenario in which they dramatically failed to keep to a fitness programme or one in which they dramatically succeeded.
Those who were asked to imagine they were succeeding in getting fit became less motivated to keep pounding the treadmill because they no longer had this fear of not looking good.
"When people dwell on a negative future, fear motivates them, yet as they move away from their feared state - a flabby body, or a wrinkled skin - they become less motivated," says Professor Brett Martin, who led the study.
But for the other half of those surveyed, who were asked to think positively about their bodies, being successful in keeping to the fitness programme made them even keener to keep going to the gym.
Professor Martin concludes that for those with a positive outlook, highlighting thoughts of being unattractive is unlikely to work.
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