The Effects of Perceived Activity Choice upon Frequency of Exercise Behavior

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of perceived activity choice upon the frequency of exercise behavior of adult women. Thirty‐six recent enrollees in a private health club were recruited for involvement in a new exercise program. At an initial organizational meeting, subjects ranked their preferences for different activities and completed a number of self‐report inventories. Subjects were paired on the basis of their activity preferences so as to establish two matched groups of subjects. One member of each pair was then randomly assigned to a choice condition while the other was assigned to a no choice control condition. Perceived choice was manipulated at the time of an individual's next visit to the club, with subjects in the choice group being led to believe that their initial activity selections were the basis for their programs whereas subjects in the control group were informed that they had been assigned a standardized exercise program by the club's instructresses. The overall attendance of the choice group was better than that of the control group. Across both groups there was a significant decline in attendance over the 6‐week period but the decrement was significantly greater in the control group. At the conclusion of the 6‐week period, subjects in the choice condition expressed a greater intention to continue exercising at the club than did subjects in the control condition.