Researchers tested a mental exercise called 'mental contrasting with implementation intentions' to see if it could help employees be more physically active and snack less on unhealthy foods at work. The study involved 73 employees over 516 days. Some participants received daily prompts to focus on either activity or snacking, while others could choose their daily focus. A third group served as a passive control for comparison.
Over the two-week study period, the mental exercise successfully increased employees' physical activity, as measured by wearable accelerometers. The version where employees could choose which behavior to focus on each day worked better for increasing activity than the version where the focus was assigned. However, the intervention did not help reduce unhealthy snacking at work. Daily refreshers of the exercise did not provide any extra benefit.
This was a small, short-term study, so we don't know if the benefits for activity would last. The finding that the exercise didn't help with snacking is important. Some exploratory analysis suggested the approach might work better in more stressful jobs or for people who snack more, but these are just early observations that need confirmation. The study shows a simple mental planning tool might offer a small, short-term boost for workplace movement, but it's not a solution for changing eating habits based on this evidence.
