‘New Year New Me’: Examining the multiple intentions-behaviour relationship via New Year’s resolutions
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Date
2022-07
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University of New Brunswick
Abstract
Cardiovascular disease, cancer, and other noncommunicable diseases account for 41 million deaths annually. Engaging in multiple risk behaviours increases the chances that a person will develop a noncommunicable disease, so multiple behaviour change interventions can substantially improve health and prevent disease. The current thesis presents an experiment in which one experimental group was encouraged to form multiple New Year’s resolutions, while the other group was encouraged to form few resolutions. Compared to the Few Intentions Group, the Many Intentions Group reported more intentions, more enacted intentions, and better quality of life. Number of intentions was significantly correlated with the success rate of intention enactment for the Many Intentions Group. There was no difference between groups in terms of failed intentions and behavioural enactment. These findings suggest that people should not be discouraged from forming multiple intentions, and there is some evidence that it may even be beneficial to form them.