Fit Effect of Health Regulatory Focus on Exercise and Healthy Diet: Asymmetric Moderating Role of Scarcity Mindset

Health is an intrinsic goal strongly related to individuals’s well-being. Many individuals make efforts to achieve their health goals through different means. Based on the health regulatory focus theory, we proposed a health regulatory fit effect to understand individuals’s health behaviors, and further examined the moderating role of scarcity mindset on these relationships.

Using a two-wave longitudinal design, our research recruited a sample of 453 adult participants (350 Women, Age = 20.39 ± 2.30 Years) from China via an online survey platform.

The results indicated that health individuals with health promotion-focus were more likely to exercise, whereas those with health prevention-focus were more inclined to prefer a healthy diet. Notably, such effect was moderated by scarcity mindset. Specifically, individuals with low promotion-focus were more susceptible to the impact of scarcity mindset, thus exhibiting less health-promoting behaviors.

This research suggested a health regulatory fit effect for two health behaviors. Intriguingly, our findings reveal an asymmetric impact of the scarcity mindset on this fit effect. These results hold significant implications for developing health promotion strategies to mitigate the negative impact of scarcity mindset on healthy behaviors.