The impact of self-affirmation on health-behavior change: A meta-analysis
Tracy Epton, Peter Harris, Rachel Kane, Guido van Koningsbruggen and Paschal Sheeran meta-analysed 144 experimental tests of self-affirmation, in which people reflect on important personal values, attributes or relationships, and its effects on three stages of health-behaviour change: acceptance of health-risk messages, intentions to change and subsequent behaviour. They found small but reliable positive effects on each outcome, with the largest on behaviour, across a range of health problems and behaviours. They note that the effects are small but comparable to those of other health-behaviour interventions.
Tracy Epton, Peter Harris, Rachel Kane, Guido van Koningsbruggen and Paschal Sheeran meta-analysed 144 experimental tests of self-affirmation, in which people reflect on important personal values, attributes or relationships, and its effects on three stages of health-behaviour change: acceptance of health-risk messages, intentions to change and subsequent behaviour. They found small but reliable positive effects on each outcome, with the largest on behaviour, across a range of health problems and behaviours. They note that the effects are small but comparable to those of other health-behaviour interventions.
Written from the abstract read 2026-10-22 via the University of Manchester repository record. Citation details checked 2026-10-22 against the Crossref record for the DOI: Health Psychology, volume 34, issue 3, article range 187-196. The repository record prints volume 43, which is an error.
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doi:10.1037/hea0000116. Read at the level of the abstract.