Writing about a personal value before health messages may help people act on them

The review

1. 01

   Who took part

   The 144 tests came from 52 studies, with about 2,700 to 5,600 people per outcome. Most studies used only students, average age about 24, and four in five people were women.

2. 02

   What they did

   People wrote about a value that mattered to them before reading a health message. The other group wrote about a value that did not matter to them.

3. 03

   What happened

   Each of three measures moved in the good direction, but only by small amounts. For how open people were, the effect was no longer clear when only the larger studies were counted. No clear sign of left-out results was found, but about one in five articles was a thesis.

What the review found

1. HelpedOther outcomes

   Across 34 tests, writing about your values made people more open to health messages.

   • Action: Clarify what matters to youtested

   Pooled analysis of 34 studies with 3,433 people · vs people who wrote about an unimportant value · they rated themselves

2. HelpedMotivation

   Across 64 tests, writing about your values made people say they meant to change more.

   • Action: Clarify what matters to youtested

   Pooled analysis of 64 studies with 5,564 people · vs people who wrote about an unimportant value · they rated themselves

3. HelpedGoals

   Across 46 tests, people who wrote about their values later acted in healthier ways.

   • Action: Clarify what matters to youtested

   Pooled analysis of 46 studies with 2,715 people · vs people who wrote about an unimportant value

Source