The consequence of self-regulation failure within a new perspective: an exploratory study on the generalizability of the snowball effect of self-regulation failure to the domain of physical exercise
Summary
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Abstract
The present study was designed to test the generalizability of recent findings on the
snowball effect of self-regulation failure to the domain of physical exercise. An initial
instance of failure of exercise goal related behavior, opposed to initial instance of success,
was hypothesized to increase the likelihood of subsequent self-regulation failure. This effect
was expected to be moderated by the formation of maladaptive attributions about initial
failure, especially at the absence of a justification for the failure. A vignette study was
executed, where initial failure versus initial success was manipulated, and a justification was
added versus left out to manipulate formation of attributions. Female participants indicated
the likelihood of subsequent failure for two self-regulation dilemmas. An initial instance of
failure was indeed demonstrated to snowball into subsequent failure, but only for participants
who read the vignettes about another person. This snowball effect of self-regulation failure
was not moderated by adding or leaving out a justification for the initial failure. A first
indication of high habit strength as a protective mechanism against the detrimental snowball
effect was found. The present research provided the first suggestion that the findings on the
snowball effect of self-regulation failure are generalizable to the domain of physical exercise,
underlining the relevance of the effect across domains. To gain more insight into the snowball
effect of self-regulation failure in behavior of people themselves, research is recommended to
further investigate the effect in actual behavior.