Effect of Watching Comedy on Affect in Young Adult Runners

Abstract

In many studies, researchers have investigated the positive effects of distractions while exercising. In most gyms, there are usually televisions playing random channels. Young adult undergraduate runners (N = 125; 64 female and 61 male) completed one mile on a treadmill at their selected pace. Approximately half the participants (n = 63) were randomly assigned to watch the comedy video while completing their mile, and the other half (n = 62) completed their mile with no video. The Feeling Scale (FS; Hardy & Rejeski, 1989), which asks participants to rate on a scale from -5 (very bad) to 5 (very good) was administered to all participants before starting the mile and after completing the mile. A repeated-measures ANOVA was used to compare group means over two observations. Results revealed statistically significant greater change in affect from pre- and post-mile in the watch group than in the no watch group. These results indicate there was an increase in affect when participants watched the comedy film while completing the mile versus the participants that only completed the mile and did not watch the video. This suggests that, on average, watching videos, such as a comedy film, is an effective option to distract gym patrons from their exercise, which may further increase their affect.