title: Psychological effects of deep-breathing: the impact of expectancy-priming.
abstract: Outcome expectancy could mediate the psychological effects of exercise-related interventions, which implies that part of the psychological benefits of physical activity could be ascribed to placebo effects. In this framed field-experiment, 89 healthy participants were studied in three groups, (1) breathing-primed (deep-breathing with an exercise-related expectancy), (2) breathing-unprimed (deep-breathing with no exercise-related expectancy), and (3) control (no intervention). Deep-breathing lasted for three minutes. Before and after deep-breathing, or sitting quietly in the control group, participants completed two questionnaires assessing their positive- and negative affect (NA) and subjective well-being (WB). In contrast to the control group, both the breathing-primed and breathing-unprimed groups showed decreased NA and increased subjective WB. The breathing-primed group reported larger changes in WB than the breathing-unprimed group, in addition to also exhibiting significant increases in positive affect. These findings support the hypothesis of the work that expectations mediate the psychological effects of deep-breathing beyond the intervention's specific effects. Therefore, future research should control for expectations related to an intervention when gauging psychological changes.
authors.affiliation: a Institute of Health Promotion and Sport Sciences , Eötvös Loránd University , Budapest , Hungary.
authors.forename: Attila
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Szabo
authors.affiliation: a Institute of Health Promotion and Sport Sciences , Eötvös Loránd University , Budapest , Hungary.
authors.forename: Ágnes
authors.initials: Á
authors.lastname: Kocsis
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001294:Attitude to Health; D001945:Breathing Exercises / Q000523:psychology*; D015444:Exercise / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D064368:Healthy Volunteers; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015990:Placebo Effect; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Anticipation; conditioning; exercise; mood; placebo