TARA PARKERPOPE - ESSAY


Every year, consumers spend an estimated $4 billion on home treadmills, stationary bikes, Stairmasters and other exercise equipment. But a Consumer Reports survey last year found that nearly 40 percent of those who buy home exercise machines say they use them less than they expected.


This may be discouraging to people who hope to improve their fitness, but it is a source of fascination for behavioral scientists. The hope is that by better understanding the behavior, they can help people make better buying decisions? and help them start exercising and stick with it.


In October, the journal Annals of Behavioral Medicine reported on a study of 205 sedentary adults who were encouraged to begin an exercise program. At 6 months, about half had done so, but by 12 months, about a third of those people had stopped.


People with a home exercise machine were 73 percent more likely to start exercising. But by the end of the year, they were also 12 percent more likely to have quit than people in the study who did not have home equipment.


This doesn¡¯t mean a home exercise machine leads to less exercise. It just means that having home equipment is not the most important factor. What matters more is¡°self-efficacy¡±- a deep belief that we really do have the power to achieve our goals. In the Annals study, those who scored high on psychological measures of self-efficacy were nearly three times as likely to be exercising after a year as those with lower self-efficacy scores, whether or not they owned an exercise machine.


Researchers say that people often fail to take psychological issues into account when they start an exercise plan.


¡°What is your confidence in your ability to stick to your exercise program when you¡¯re on vacation, when you¡¯re not feeling well, when you¡¯re busy?¡± asked David M.Williams, assistant professor of psychiatry and human behavior at the Alpert Medical School of Brown University in Rhode Island, who led the exercise study.


Dr.Williams said there were simple ways to increase the likelihood that you will keep exercising. Working out with friends or family members, mastering an exercise (like the proper way to use gym equipment), and working with someone who motivates you, like a personal trainer, all build confidence and bolster the chances of sticking with it.


But consumers need to distinguish between real motivation to exercise and the unrealistic optimism that often takes over when they are shopping for a new exercise machine.


¡°Most goals we set for ourselves tend to be unrealistically high,¡± said Ravi Dhar, director of the Yale Center for Customer Insights and a professor of marketing and psychology.¡°When you buy these machines, you probably end up focusing on one or two attributes, like how easy it is to use or having it in your home. You¡¯re not thinking about the barriers, what you¡¯re giving up, like the time with friends or the Internet.¡±