A three-item scale measuring a consumer's belief that reducing food intake is a more effective weight-loss strategy than increasing exercise. Items directly contrast diet restriction with exercise, with one reverse-scored item framing exercise as superior. The scale was designed as a manipulation check to verify that a dietary calorie framing condition was successfully induced, but its content captures a theoretically meaningful individual difference in lay beliefs about the relative efficacy of diet versus exercise for weight management.
7-point Likert
Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.
Single alpha: α = .80 — Jia, Li & Krishna (2020, Study 3, n = 122 undergraduates). VALIDITY: Used as a manipulation check; successful detection of the dietary framing manipulation provides preliminary predictive validity evidence. One item is reverse-scored ('I think to lose weight, exercising more is better than eating less'). Scale appears original to the authors. Context: administered in Singapore; potential cultural differences in diet vs exercise attitudes should be considered when applying in other national contexts.
Jia, Miaolei (Liam), Xiuping Li, and Aradhna Krishna (2020). Contraction with unpacking: When unpacking leads to lower calorie budgets. Journal of Consumer Research, 46(5), 853–870.
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