Why weren’t they already exercising in the first place? And if they hope to achieve something positive by exercising, wasn’t that enough to get them start exercising?
I think that humans usually are not strategic goal seekers. That’s how an ideal rational being should be, but ordinary humans are not like that. We do have goals, and sometimes even strategies, but most things are decided emotionally or by habit.
So the answer to “why weren’t they already exercising” could well be: a) Because they didn’t have a habit of exercising. When you are doing something for the first time, there is a lot of logistic overhead; you must decide when and where to exercise, which specific exercises are you going to do, et cetera; while the next time you can simply decide to do the same thing you did yesterday. b) Because they didn’t have positive memories connected with exercising in past, so while their heads are thinking that it would be good to exercise and become more fit and healthy, their hearts try to avoid the whole thing.
If this model is correct (well, that’s questionable, but I suppose it is) the next time there is an advantage that you can follow the strategy of doing the same thing as the last time, and you already have some positive memories. And this could be enough for some people to change the balance. And may be not enough for others. In this specific case, we will later have experimental data.
Speaking for myself, many people I know who exercise or do sport regularly, do it with their friends. If those were my friends, I would be also tempted to join. But I am rather picky about choosing my friends. And the people who pass my filter are usually just as lazy as I am, or too individualistic do agree on doing something together. A few times I went to gym, it was incredibly boring. (I imagine having there someone to talk with would change that. Or if I would just remember to always bring a music player, perhaps with an audio book.) I do some small exercise at home. I imagine that if I had an exercise machine at home, I would use it, because the largest inconvenience for me is to go somewhere outside.
get them to do extremely unenjoyable exercises just for the sake of the community, which will ultimately get them to resent exercise even more than before
That would be obviously wrong, I agree. I just don’t expect this to happen. But it is better to mention it explicitly.
I think that humans usually are not strategic goal seekers. That’s how an ideal rational being should be, but ordinary humans are not like that. We do have goals, and sometimes even strategies, but most things are decided emotionally or by habit.
So the answer to “why weren’t they already exercising” could well be: a) Because they didn’t have a habit of exercising. When you are doing something for the first time, there is a lot of logistic overhead; you must decide when and where to exercise, which specific exercises are you going to do, et cetera; while the next time you can simply decide to do the same thing you did yesterday. b) Because they didn’t have positive memories connected with exercising in past, so while their heads are thinking that it would be good to exercise and become more fit and healthy, their hearts try to avoid the whole thing.
If this model is correct (well, that’s questionable, but I suppose it is) the next time there is an advantage that you can follow the strategy of doing the same thing as the last time, and you already have some positive memories. And this could be enough for some people to change the balance. And may be not enough for others. In this specific case, we will later have experimental data.
Speaking for myself, many people I know who exercise or do sport regularly, do it with their friends. If those were my friends, I would be also tempted to join. But I am rather picky about choosing my friends. And the people who pass my filter are usually just as lazy as I am, or too individualistic do agree on doing something together. A few times I went to gym, it was incredibly boring. (I imagine having there someone to talk with would change that. Or if I would just remember to always bring a music player, perhaps with an audio book.) I do some small exercise at home. I imagine that if I had an exercise machine at home, I would use it, because the largest inconvenience for me is to go somewhere outside.
That would be obviously wrong, I agree. I just don’t expect this to happen. But it is better to mention it explicitly.