Testing attitudes, social desirability and behavioral regulations as moderators of implicit-explicit exercise discrepancies: A replication study in Iranian students

Introduction: There is mixed evidence regarding moderators of the relationship between implicitly and explicitly measured constructs. This study examined this issue with evaluations of exercise relative to health or appearance in a sample of Iranian adolescents. Investigaing automatic associations and reflective constructs might provide important implications for developing interventions targeting exercise behavior in a population with different cultural, social, and economic barriers to exercise than European or North American adolescents. Methods: Participants were 471 students enrolled in grades 9 to 12, of whom 269 (54.9%) were female. Behavioral regulations, explicit attitudes, and social desirability were investigated as possible moderators. All students completed questionnaire measures of physical activity behavior, attitudes, social desieality and behavioral regulation. They also completed two Go/No Go Association tasks to measure automatic associations of exercise with health and apperarance. Results: Attitude was a significant moderator of discrepancies between automatic associations of exercise with health and health motives. Interjected regulation moderated implicit-explicit appearance discrepancies. Participants with low social desirability and negative automatic appearance associations had the highest appearance motivation. Conclusions: Participants focused on the potential of achieving positive health outcomes of exercise rather than physical appearance outcomes, which differs from research from other countries. It is possible that, health was strongly linked with exercise by the pervasive societal pressures in Iran to have a healthy body.

Automated summary

The study examined the relationship between exercise evaluations and health/appearance in Iranian adolescents, with a focus on behavioral regulations, explicit attitudes, and social desirability as possible moderators. Results showed that participants in Iran prioritize health outcomes of exercise over physical appearance outcomes, potentially influenced by societal pressures related to having a healthy body.