How The Power of Belief Impacts The Benefits of Exercise

Exercise is nowadays a standard recommendation for people experiencing long-lasting health issues. Believing that an intervention will help has been shown to promote good health and longer lives. Check out this study on exercise and the power of belief, exploring whether mindset, here meaning how people view their own physical activity level, modulates the health improvements of exercise.

Key Takeaways 

• Awareness of how much exercise one gets influences its health benefits
• Higher perceived exercise linked with lower body fat, weight, and blood pressure

The placebo effect can be defined as a health benefit driven by a person’s belief that an intervention will help. Its impact has been established for decades, such that clinical trials very commonly need to account for it to properly assess the benefit of an actual intervention. But besides benefits and improvements, the placebo effect — or the moderating role of mindset — has also been seen in other contexts, such as when negative health outcomes followed exposure to fake poison. Symbols, beliefs and expectations have been shown to work on one’s mind in a similar way, overall indicating that the placebo effect can come from a multitude of sources.

The impact of belief on one’s health, and its effects on the health gains associated with exercise have been alluded to in previous research. For example, a study found that having a higher perceived control of health predicts longer lives when health is highly valued, while another found that elderly persons who perceive their health as excellent are more likely to live longer than those rating their health as poor. Also, young adults who were led to believe that an exercise program would improve mental well-being had their self-esteem notably improved.

Studies have shown when elderly people perceive their health as excellent are more likely to live longer.

As exercise and other behavioral changes are commonly recommended to manage poor health, researchers at Harvard University wondered whether the placebo effect is at least partly responsible for the benefits of exercise. In other words, their study assessed whether one’s mindset moderates the link between exercise and health.

Mindset Impacts Health Benefits of Exercise

To explore that hypothesis, they recruited adult women working as room attendants, a job that involves physical activities such as walking, bending, pushing, and lifting. A total of 84 participants completed all study measures. 

All women were told that the study aimed to find ways to enhance their health. But while the informed group were also given explanations of how their work meets, and even exceeds, the Surgeon General’s indications of how much daily exercise fits a healthy lifestyle, the control group was not given this information until after the last set of assessments. Examples of standard activities mentioned as favoring health and burning calories included changing linens, vacuuming, and cleaning bathrooms.

Every participant filled a questionnaire evaluating self-reported exercise by asking whether or not women exercised regularly and, if the answer was positive, how much exercise they got. In addition, questions explored whether or not women viewed their work as exercise or if physical activity was done outside of work (such as swimming or running). 

At study start, two-thirds of the women said they did not exercise regularly and more than one-third said they did not exercise at all, an indicator that they were not aware of the exercise they were getting at work. Indicators of health such as blood pressure and body fat were not good, suggesting that the participants’s health reflected the perceived amount of exercise rather than actual exercise.

After the four-week intervention, women in the informed group had higher levels of perceived exercise (and perceived work as exercise) compared to controls. More than 75% of the women in the informed group now reported exercising regularly — a 40% increase. No difference between the two groups was seen at study start, meaning that only the participants who were told how their work surpasses daily physical activity recommendations increased their perceived exercise during the study. 

A 2007 Stanford University study showed that when participants believed their everyday activities counted as exercise they had lower body fat, weight, and blood pressure than the uninformed group over a four week period.

The same health indicators measured at study start now showed relevant improvements. Weight was reduced by 2 pounds, and both body fat and blood pressure also decreased. That this happened after only four weeks makes these benefits all the more meaningful, according to the scientists. Taken together, this supports their hypothesis that the amount of perceived exercise—whether or not we think we are exercising—goes hand in hand with health measures.

Notably, the informed room attendants did not report exercising more outside of work, were more aware that their work was a form of exercise, and had a constant workload in the month prior and during the study, as confirmed by their managers. This overall context indicates that the difference in reported physical activity was linked to a change of mindset with the intervention.

But how might these women have experienced health benefits after a shift in mindset? 

The link between exercise and lower blood pressure is normally explained by blood vessel widening and durable changes in the body’s mechanisms of controlling blood pressure. The link between exercise and weight loss is explained by spending more energy. But as workload remained steady, the level of exercise outside of work did not change, and diet remained globally unaltered, the scientists believe that it is unlikely that the association between mindset and health benefits was driven by a change in behavior. Either way, they said the results strongly suggest that mindset affects health.

While more research is needed to better understand the mindset-health link, the findings may be particularly important for people whose poor health is associated with a sedentary lifestyle. More generally, the results support mindset and the power of belief as a way to have more control over your health.

If you find this study intriguing be sure to listen to our podcast with Ellen Langer, author of The Mindful Body and co-author of this study, where we discuss this study in detail and how your mind and body are interconnected, with mental states significantly influencing physical health. And make sure you subscribe to Collective Insights so you never miss an episode!

Referenced study: 

Crum, AJ, Langer, EJ: Mind-Set Matters - Exercise and the Placebo Effect. Psychol Sci. 2007, 18(2):165-71. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01867.x.

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