Stimulating sport behavior via an online social network: a real-life experiment

We will investigate the effectiveness of online social support as a strategy for improving sport participation by staging an 8-week network intervention in the online fitness and coaching platform Final Surge. This intervention will take place among participants of a group-based beginner strength training course at the university sport center of a Dutch university. Participants will be randomly assigned to one of two conditions: (1) a control condition, in which they are asked to keep a log of their sports activities in the app; and (2) an experimental condition, which supplements the control condition by activating a "Social Wall", where athletes’ activities are shared in the group, and where they can interact with each other based on their activities using comments and likes.

本研究旨在探讨在线社交支持作为提升体育参与度的策略之有效性，通过在在线健身与教练平台Final Surge中实施为期8周的干预网络，对荷兰某大学体育中心的一组基础力量训练课程参与者进行实验。参与者将被随机分配至以下两种条件之一：（1）控制条件，要求他们在应用中记录自己的体育活动日志；（2）实验条件，通过激活“社交墙”来补充控制条件，在该墙上运动员的活动将被共享于群体之中，他们能够基于活动内容通过评论和点赞等方式相互互动。