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I am pretty confident from my own experience that the study’s conclusion is broadly true. But the study leaves open one obvious alternative explanation: people who have enough free time to exercise regularly (and exercise was used as a stand-in for fitness level, it doesn’t look like they actually measured anything else) could have less stressful and anger-inducing lives overall.
My final year of college I lived 2 miles off campus and would daily bicycle to school. In previous years I would commute via car as I lived too far to make the trip conveniently. I perceived greater emotional well-being during the 1 year period of moderate daily exercise. My grades also improved dramatically and I was more resilient during periods of sleep deprivation or intense study. As an adult with a family it has been more difficult to establish a pattern of daily physical activity. Going to the gym is very boring for me.
Would a stressed out Amazon/Uber eats delivery person who is very fit from working 10 hours a day, but with barely enough money to feed their family going to be less angry/anxious than a rich person lounging at his villa with zero worries? This is looking at one variable which isn't very useful.
I am 100% certain my resilience to stress and anxiety is directly tied to my cardiovascular health. I'm prone to a heart-racing, hot-eared flywheel of anxiety. When I've been running a lot I can FEEL the vagal tone/HRV fitness that gives me an physical off ramp for the mental space to take a fucking chill pill.
Cardio is unpleasant and stressful, which is why most people don't do it. Someone willing to do something that is not fun, on a regular basis, is going to have stronger mental status that someone who doesn't try at all.
Exercise is good, everyone knows. The problem is advising people to exercise doesn't work and doesn't scale. Gyms are for people who have plenty of intrinsic motivation and money and time.
To improve physical activity at the population scale and over a lifetime, it literally has to be built into the design of the cities, so people get enough exercise while walking to work or grabbing groceries.
I wonder if there is some underlying lizard-brain thing going on here.
If you "know" you are physically unfit you are quick to anger and aggression because you potentially need to act like that to not need to rely on physical fitness if it came to needing it? I.e. you need to deter others through your aggression rather than relying on fitness if it came to a fight?
Or alternatively the other perspective if you "know" you are fit you can keep the stress hormones low safe in the knowledge that if it comes to it you've got the fitness to handle a fight?
Linguistics question: the title says “[…] is associated with lower anger and anxiety”
I read it as _people who have lower anger, and people who have anxiety_
Am I broken? (I am a native English speaker but that doesn’t mean that I speak English correctly)
This study seems both wildly underpowered, chooses relatively bad methods for analysis (splitting between below average and above average, really?) and has far too many comparisions (they claim to have used bonferroni corrections where necessary, and then don't mention it again).
All in all, it's a pretty good example of modern psychological research. Bad statistics, hyped up findings and (probably) wild over-generalisation about what this tiny study means for society/the world/my research funding.
I think the biggest flaw here is around the measurement of VO2 max. So they first ask people how often they exercise (cos no-one ever lies) and then use a linear equation to map that to VO2 max. Granted, the equation has lines for age and sex, so it's not entirely useless, but if you're only going to sample 40 students then why not try to measure things a little better?
The most unintentionally hilarious thing about their methods section is that age was not normally distributed (according to a shapiro test). They sampled students, so of course it's not going to be normally distributed. Students have a well-known bias in age.
Ultimately, regardless of whether or not this finding turns out to be true (I like the idea of it, myself) this study provides absolutely no evidence for the effect.
Note: I have a PhD in psychology, but left the field a decade plus ago. I'm both horrified by this study, and also having a lot of fun poking holes in it, maybe I should try to get back into reviewing? ;)
Site implements comprehensive telemetry and tracking infrastructure (New Relic). Preamble's focus on human dignity and freedom constrained by surveillance architecture. No editorial content observable addressing dignity or freedom.
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Article 1Freedom, Equality, Brotherhood
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No observable content addressing equal rights and inherent dignity. Structural neutrality; no signals of discrimination or equality in technical payload.
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Article 2Non-Discrimination
Medium P:paywall-access-restriction
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Subscription-based access model creates structural barrier regardless of protected characteristics. Commercial platform restricts knowledge access; mild negative on non-discrimination insofar as access is economic rather than principle-based.
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Article 3Life, Liberty, Security
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Right to life, liberty, personal security not addressed in research abstract or platform structure. Neutral.
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Article 4No Slavery
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Slavery and servitude provisions not relevant to academic publishing platform. Neutral.
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Article 5No Torture
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Article 6Legal Personhood
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Article 7Equality Before Law
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Equal protection before law not addressed in platform structure. Neutral.
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Article 8Right to Remedy
High P:tracking-cookies P:telemetry-collection
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Right to effective remedy for violation of fundamental rights. New Relic tracking, analytics, and monitoring visible without transparent user opt-in mechanisms in provided payload. Users have limited transparent recourse for data collection practices.
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Article 9No Arbitrary Detention
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Arbitrary arrest/detention not directly relevant, but Article 9 protects from arbitrary state/private action. New Relic instrumentation enables behavioral monitoring and profiling without explicit individual consent signals visible in code.
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Article 10Fair Hearing
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Article 11Presumption of Innocence
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Criminal procedure and presumption of innocence not relevant to academic platform. Neutral.
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Article 12Privacy
High P:telemetry-tracking P:cross-domain-tracking P:behavioral-monitoring
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Arbitrary interference with privacy and correspondence. New Relic browser agent actively collects performance data, user behavior signals (ajax monitoring, visibility state, interaction tracking). No observable granular privacy controls or explicit consent mechanism for analytics collection in provided code.
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Article 13Freedom of Movement
Medium P:paywall-content-restriction
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Freedom of movement and residence not directly relevant; interpreted as access to information. Paywall structure restricts freedom to move freely to knowledge content.
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Article 14Asylum
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Article 15Nationality
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Article 16Marriage & Family
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Right to marry and found family, protection of family life. Behavioral tracking may indirectly infringe on family privacy expectations through data collection about family member usage patterns.
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Article 17Property
High P:data-collection P:profiling
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Right to own property; protection against arbitrary deprivation. Behavioral data generated by users on platform collected by New Relic without transparent ownership clarity. User-generated behavioral data treated as platform/Elsevier property with limited user control.
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Article 18Freedom of Thought
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Freedom of thought, conscience, religion not addressed in technical platform. Neutral.
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Article 19Freedom of Expression
Medium A:open-science P:paywall-access
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Freedom of opinion and expression, including information access. Editorial: research article itself on health/wellness promotes scientific knowledge sharing (mild positive). Structural: paywall model and tracking inhibit free access and expression of research findings to public (negative). Combined slightly negative after modifier applied.
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Article 20Assembly & Association
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Article 21Political Participation
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Article 22Social Security
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Article 23Work & Equal Pay
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Right to work and favorable conditions not addressed. Neutral.
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Article 24Rest & Leisure
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Right to rest and leisure not addressed. Neutral.
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Article 25Standard of Living
Medium A:health-wellness
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Right to adequate standard of living including health and well-being. Research article title addresses cardiorespiratory fitness and mental health (anxiety, anger, emotional resilience), directly supporting health promotion and access to health information. Mild positive lean on editorial front.
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Article 26Education
Medium A:education-research P:access-restriction
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Right to education. Editorial: academic research platform and published study support education and knowledge development (positive). Structural: paywall restricts broad public access to educational research content (negative). Net approximately neutral after modifiers.
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Article 27Cultural Participation
Medium A:scientific-culture P:proprietary-access
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Right to participate in scientific advancement and cultural life. Editorial: dissemination of peer-reviewed health research supports scientific culture (positive). Structural: commercial paywall model and proprietary access controls limit broad participation in scientific benefits (negative). Net slightly negative after modifiers.
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Article 28Social & International Order
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Right to social and international order for rights realization. Platform's terms and conditions (not fully observable) establish order; commercial structure potentially limits equitable access to research-supported ordering.
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Article 29Duties to Community
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Duties to community. Behavioral tracking and monitoring create subtle chilling effect on free expression and participation. Neutral to mildly negative.
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Article 30No Destruction of Rights
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Nothing in UDHR may be interpreted to permit destruction of rights. New Relic tracking and telemetry practices, if not transparent/consensual, potentially undermine other Article protections (12, 17). Structural mechanics of surveillance could be interpreted as enabling limitation of rights.