A new study co-authored by Harvard psychology professor Ellen Langer highlights how an active mindset can enhance health outcomes, even without changing physical activity levels.
The research, involving 84 female room attendants across seven hotels, suggests that perceiving routine work as exercise can trigger significant health improvements through a placebo effect.
Participants were divided into two groups: one informed that their cleaning duties qualified as exercise meeting the Surgeon General’s recommendations, with examples provided, while the control group received no such guidance.
After just four weeks, the informed group reported feeling more active, leading to measurable drops in weight, blood pressure, body fat, waist-to-hip ratio, and body mass index compared to the control group, despite making no actual changes to their workload or physical activity.
“Most people are mindless almost all the time,” Langer told Axios, noting that such inattention “shuts down the body.” She explained that noticing new aspects of daily activities ‘fires the neurons’ and proves “literally and figuratively enlivening.”
The study supports her theory that mindfulness about movement yields health benefits, with the informed group’s perception alone driving the results.
Langer suggested practical steps to cultivate this mindset, such as “notice new things about the things you thought you knew”—like spotting three new details on a walk—or “recognize that everything is always changing,” embracing uncertainty.
She added that believing in self-care prompts small actions, like standing taller, that accumulate into larger gains.
The findings, detailed in the study, indicate that simply viewing chores as exercise could serve as an overlooked fitness strategy, potentially influencing how individuals approach daily routines to boost health without hitting the gym.