Acute aerobic exercise and attentional focus influence the self-positivity bias in emotional evaluation. Evidence from an experimental study

Abstract The influence of aerobic exercise, as a possibly mood-enhancing experience, was investigated for its effect on emotional evaluation of self- vs. other-related emotional (e.g., my/his joy) or neutral (e.g., my/his notes) stimuli. N=30 participants (healthy, female novices, i.e., with no regular, dedicated training schedule) performed four separate sessions of moderate aerobic exercise (22 min of cycling at 60-70% HRmax). Attentional focus was manipulated across exercise bouts (internal focus vs. external focus vs. no instructed attention focus vs. control condition consisting of no exercise and no instructed attention focus). Emotional evaluation of verbal stimuli was assessed 10 minutes after each exercise bout. Exercise increased self-reported positive affect compared to the inactive control condition regardless of attentional focus. Exercising without instructed attentional focus led to faster reaction times in the emotional evaluation task compared to the inactive control condition. Instructed internal or external attentional focus did not affect evaluations (number of valence-congruent responses) or reaction times compared to the no-exercise control condition. Self-reported internal attentional focus during cycling was associated with a subsequently stronger, and in the case of an external focus with a subsequently rather reduced self-positivity bias in the evaluation of self-related, positive vs. other-related positive words.