Self-conversation with a sporting celebrity enhances later physical exercise: an exploratory study

Abstract There is a world-wide deficit in physical exercise with many deleterious effects on health. Methods to enhance the uptake of physical exercise include digital applications and celebrity endorsements. Here we introduce a Virtual Reality (VR) self-conversation method combined with celebrity endorsement. Participants had a conversation with a virtual representation of a sporting celebrity to discuss ways of enhancing their exercise routine. However, they took both sides of the discussion—embodied as themselves and as the celebrity, swapping between the two bodies. A between groups experiment was carried out with three conditions: Video (n = 25), General (n = 20) and Self (n = 20). All participants watched a video of the celebrity athlete working out. Participants in the General condition additionally experienced the VR scenario with their own self representation as a general sex-matched virtual body. In the Self condition their virtual body was a likeness of themselves. The results showed that participants had improved in their exercise routines one week after the VR exposure. However, for women the improvement was superior with the General body, and for men with the Self body. The difference between the outcomes for males and females is probably due to the greater likelihood of body dissatisfaction amongst women. This is an exploratory study of a new technique with promising results.