Next time you head to the gym, plan to cozy up next to some unfit folks on the weight machines. Chances are you'll work harder and longer if your exercise partners are frumpier than you.

When researchers from the University of California, San Diego, secretly timed women on a weight machine, they found than if a fit woman in tight gym clothes was on the next machine, the exercisers stopped in just under three minutes. But when their neighbor looked unfit and was sporting baggy sweat pants, the women kept going for more than five minutes. Questionnaires the participants later completed revealed the unfit folks didn't make them feel better about themselves, but the hot bods did make them feel worse than when no one was on the next machine.

This news brief, found in the June 2008 issue of Good Housekeeping, has me wondering where I'll place myself next time I hit the gym. How about you?