A brief self-persuasion intervention to strengthen health-promoting dietary intentions through autonomous motivation

Abstract

Given the prevalence in obesity and other diet-related chronic diseases among adults in America, methods targeting dietary behavior change are essential. Interventions that aim to increase individuals' autonomous (i.e., self-driven) motivation to engage in health-promoting behaviors are highly effective, however, such interventions are difficult to scale. Thus, the current study tested the efficacy of a brief self-persuasion intervention to change participants' dietary goal content and increase intentions to make healthy dietary decisions, through autonomous motivation. The study also investigated the assumption that appearance-based goals decrease health-promoting behavior. The intervention was administered online to female college students (N = 300). Results showed that inspiring health-based and appearance-based goal content led to higher intentions compared to gaining others' approval-based goals, indirectly through higher autonomous motivation. Appearance-based goal content also led to higher intentions compared to a control condition. Results imply that there is promise in using a brief, easily administrable, self-persuasion intervention to increase health-promoting dietary behaviors. Additionally, results reflect that bolstering appearance-based goal content can promote health-promoting behaviors, however, more research is necessary to delineate the parameters of the finding.

Keywords: Diet; Goal content; Intervention; Self-determination theory; Self-persuasion.