Comparing habit-behaviour relationships for sport versus leisure time physical activity

Evidence shows that people with strong physical activity habits tend to engage in more physical activity than those with weaker habits, but little is known about how habit influences specific types of physical activity. This study aimed to test whether mean level of habit strength and magnitude of the habit strength – behaviour association differed as a function of physical activity modality. Participants (N = 120; M age = 25 years, 75% female) reported significantly stronger habit for sport than for leisure time physical activity. Crucially, no significant difference was found in the magnitude of the sport-habit and leisure-habit link. Research should therefore focus on identifying the characteristics of sports-based activity that are particularly conducive to habit formation as a precursor to developing interventions to promote performance of leisure time activity in a way that would attain such characteristics.