One of my favorite exercise science writers is Alex Hutchinson. Hutchinson authored the 2018 book “Endure” and writes a regular column for Outside titled “Sweat Science.”
Recently, Hutchinson brought attention to a 2011 study examining the “licensing” effect observed in participants taking a dietary supplement [1].
Those in the study who believed they were taking a supplement (as opposed to a control group told they were taking a placebo) made subsequent choices that offset the intended health benefit of the supplement.
Power of Belief
In short, the belief in the health-promoting power of the supplement provided a “license” to make poorer health choices later. The group who took the supplement:
- Had less desire to exercise
- Preferred a buffet over a “healthy organic meal”
- Walked less
In a practical sense, the “cost” of a supplement isn’t restricted to the purchase price. Taking dietary supplements can also drain the limited supply of discipline and self-control needed to make difficult health choices.
So, what does the “licensing effect” have to do with podcasts making you slower on the bike? Let’s find out.
This quote from author James Clear offers a clue [2].
“It is easy to get bogged down trying to find the optimal plan for change: the fastest way to lose weight, the best program to build muscle…We are so focused on figuring out the best approach that we never get around to taking action…”.
In my experience working as a coach, I’ve observed many training podcasts (and other forms of social media) become an intellectual dietary supplement.
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Illusion of Progress
It’s not simply that some podcasts are a waste of time; consuming them can offer an illusion of progress while simultaneously making it more challenging to apply focus and discipline in training. Why do podcasts have this effect?
I have two ideas.
One: Podcasting Business Model
Like other forms of social media, nearly all podcasts are built on an advertising model. Your attention is the commodity sold to companies buying ads or placing products. To maintain your listenership, podcasts must be engaging and novel.
This business model naturally selects marginal training strategies conveniently bundled with products for sale. Think dietary supplements, recovery aids, performance hacking tools, and training silver bullets.
Training topics that fall under the “marginal gains” category offer a nebulous benefit even for the greatest athletes in the world; what’s the chance they warrant the attention of an age-group athlete balancing a full-time job? It’s close to zero.
This brings me to my second point.
Two: Following what’s easy
Listening to a podcast extolling the benefits of recovery boots, clicking the buy button, and then waiting for a package to arrive on your doorstep is fun.
Reevaluating your bedtime routines and canceling Netflix to get more sleep is a ton of work. Podcasts make this work harder because they often peddle intellectual supplements that offer a license to backslide on the hard work of habit change in exchange for a marginal hack like a Whoop strap.
The Solution
You might think I’m about to suggest you stop listening to podcasts, but that would ignore that a lot of content available for free is valuable.
With that in mind, here’s a suggestion for mindfully consuming training-related content through podcasts and other social media channels.
Accept that the role of a podcaster is more entertainer than coach.
Podcasters are constantly searching for novel information to discuss. Audience engagement is their metric of success. This makes the modern health/fitness podcast analogous to a social media feed where virality prioritizes topics of interest, not the value a topic might add to someone’s life.
Contrast the podcaster with a coach (or your role as a self-coached athlete). A coach’s primary job is to prioritize training strategies based on the value they offer an athlete. The novelty of a strategy is irrelevant. A coach’s metric of success is results.
Viewing a podcaster (or other content creator) as an entertainer builds in a layer of skepticism, making you less susceptible to the licensing effect of buying into a marginal training hack at the expense of the training most likely to contribute to your progress.
References
- Chiou, W.B., C.C. Yang, and C.S. Wan, Ironic effects of dietary supplementation: illusory invulnerability created by taking dietary supplements licenses health-risk behaviors. Psychol Sci, 2011. 22(8): p. 1081-6.
- Clear, J., ATOMIC HABITS : an easy and proven way to build good habits and break bad ones. 2019, [Place of publication not identified]: RANDOM House BUSINESS.