Consistent behavior development: is a personal-rule or a deliberation-based strategy more effective?
The development of consistent health behaviors is important for chronic illness prevention and management. The current study experimentally compared two strategies--a personal-rule and a deliberation strategy--designed to help participants consistently perform their intended behaviors over a 7-week period in a real-world setting. Although the personal-rule strategy had theoretical support from behavioral economics and empirical support from both animal and human lab experiments, the deliberation strategy group was significantly more successful than the personal-rule strategy group, both initially (time to first violation, p < .01, Cohen's d = .51) and over the entire 7-week period (overall success, p < .05, Cohen's d = .18). These effects were significant even after controlling for known predictors of behavioral success, including individual-difference variables, person-behavior factors, and resolution-related factors.
a Rutgers University.
L Alison
LA
Phillips
Gretchen B
GB
Chapman
D000293:Adolescent; D005260:Female; D006040:Goals; D015438:Health Behavior; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D012201:Reward; D012927:Social Control, Informal
behavior maintenance; deliberation; health behavior; personal rules