Oversharing at the Gym?

Now this is kind of interesting -- according to research done by a marketing professor at Wharton, people may be more ready to share information after they've physically exerted themselves.

I almost didn't read the article because at first I thought it was about the psychology of over-sharing, which didn't really sound all that interesting. But who would have known that information sharing habits and decisions can change according to physiological factors as well?

We'd expect, for example, that a highly charged emotional state could have an impact on readiness to share information, and this same professor did a study on that back in 2009. After all, when our emotions are more energized, we are not as likely to think through decisions as we are to just act. And many of us find our emotions prompt us to connect to other people. When we are happy we want to share it and when we are sad we want to have people to lean on, for example. But it seems strange that getting to the same state of heightened arousal -- and calm down, that's not what you think it is -- via physical activity can have the same impact.

The writer's hook for the article is that one reason former U.S. Representative Anthony Wiener Tweeted embarrassing photos of himself was that he had just worked out. I think that's a stretch, because the congressman's many other Twitter messages show that he was just that immature and had next to no common sense in some areas, but maybe working out was the tipping point.

One odd little twist to the story is that this research was done not by a behavioral scientist or psychologist, but by a professor of marketing at a business school. No doubt the ultimate purpose of the research is to find out ways to get more eyeballs on a message someone wants out there and to catch people when and where they might be more likely to share that message, but the information is pretty interesting by itself.

On the other hand, my own personal research shows that single women in my age range are not any readier to share contact information with me at the gym than they are anywhere else. Of course, I can sweat a T-shirt from arid to deluge flood stage in less than 30 minutes, so that may have something to do with the reluctance.