Effects of biggest loser exercise depictions on exercise-related attitudes

Abstract

Objectives: To examine whether participants who watched an exercise-related segment of The Biggest Loser television program would have different explicit and implicit affective exercise-related attitudes than those of control participants. Methods: University students (N=138) watched a clip of The Biggest Loser or American Idol, then completed a Go/No-go Association Task, a thought-listing task, and questionnaires measuring explicit attitudes, activity level, and mood. Results: Participants who watched The Biggest Loser had significantly lower explicit, but not implicit, attitudes towards exercise than did control participants. Conclusions: There is a need to examine the influence of popular media depictions of exercise. Copyright (c) PNG Publications. All rights reserved.