The researchers found a similar pattern at the gym. At a large northeastern university where students had to swipe a card to enter workout facilities, the researchers collected more than a year’s worth of data on daily gym attendance. As with the Google searches, gym visits increased “at the start of each new week, month, and year.” But those weren’t the only dates that got students out of the dorm and onto a treadmill. Undergraduates “exercised more both at the start of a new semester . . . and on the first day after a school break.” They also hit the gym more immediately after a
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