Testing Attitudes, Social Desirability and Behavioral Regulations as Moderators of Implicit-Explicit Exercise Cognition Discrepancies in Iranian Students

Abstract

Background: Although there is interest among regarding implicit-explicit exercise cognition discrepancies, there is mixed evidence regarding what moderates the relationship between implicitly and explicitly measured constructs. This study examined this issue with evaluations of exercise relative to health or appearance in a sample of Iranian adolescents. Methods: Participants were 471 students enrolled in grades 9 to 12 from Kurdistan, Iran, of whom 269 (54.9%) were female. The possible moderators included behavioral regulations, explicit attitudes, and social desirability. All students completed questionnaire measures of physical activity behavior, attitudes, social desieality and behavioral regulation. They also completed two Go/No Go Association tasks to measure implicit evaluations of exercise relative to health and apperarance. Results. Attitude was a significant moderator of discrepancies between implicit evaluations of exercise with health and health motives. Interjected regulation moderated implicit-explicit appearance discrepancies in the health models. Participants with low social desirability and negative implicit appearance scores had the highest appearance motivation. Conclusions: Investigating implicit-explicit discrepancies provides insight into the development of interventions targeting exercise behavior among Iranian adolescents.