Exploring the role of eudemonic wellbeing in motivating health behavior: A brief experimental study

Abstract Promoting eudemonic psychological wellbeing, including purpose in life and environmental mastery, may motivate positive health behaviors. However, experimental studies exploring cognitive aspects of wellbeing and health behavior are lacking. This study employed a 2x2 between-subjects factorial design to assess the effects of eliciting a brief saliency in purpose and mastery on anticipated health behavior. A total of 102 participants were randomly assigned to guided visualization tasks on purpose, mastery, both, or a control condition. Dependent measures included a health motivations questionnaire and a food preference task. A principal component factor analysis identified three factors on the questionnaire, and a significant main effect of purpose on the factor ‘socially-derived health values’ was found. No effects of mastery, nor any effects on the preference task, were detected. While longer-term intervention research is needed, this study provides limited evidence that eliciting a sense of purpose, even briefly, can motivate an increase in the perceived value of health behaviors.