چکیده (انگلیسی):

Background

No study has yet adopted the perspective of the self-categorization theory to examine the impact of playing exergames on players' attitudes and intentions towards other forms of exercise.

Purpose

To examine the impact of playing exergames on players' attitudes and intentions to engage in other exercise and how such an impact depends on previous exercise frequency.

Methods

This randomized controlled trial recruited 117 college students who were randomly assigned to either an intervention group (n = 55) or a control group (n = 62). Participants in the first group played an exergame for 30 min, three times per week for 12 weeks. This study calculated the changes in the participants' attitudes and intentions before and after the program, and compared the differences between the two groups.

Results

Exergaming improved the players' attitudes toward other forms of exercise. Such improvement was significant for frequent exercisers, but not for infrequent exercisers. Surprisingly, playing exergames strengthened the intentions to engage in other forms of exercise for frequent exercisers, but weakened such intentions for infrequent exercisers.

Conclusions

Exergaming encourages frequent exercisers to engage in other forms of exercise, but does the opposite among infrequent exercisers.

Originality

This study is the first identifying the contingent effect of exergaming on users' attitudes and intentions toward other forms of exercise.