No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the author.
The Hidden Cost of Personal Quantification
Abstract
From sleep and energy use to exercise and health, consumers have access to more information about their behavior than ever before. The appeal of personal quantification seems clear. By better understanding their behavior, consumers can make the necessary changes to live happier, healthier lives. But might the new tools consumers are using—quantifying life— rob them of some of the benefits of engaging in those activities? Six experiments demonstrate that while measurement increases how much of an activity people do (e.g., walk or read more), it can simultaneously reduce how much people enjoy those activities. This occurs because measurement can undermine intrinsic motivation. By drawing attention to output, measurement can make enjoyable activities feel more like work, which reduces their enjoyment. As a result, measurement can decrease continued engagement in the activity and subjective well-being. Even in the absence of explicit external incentives, measurement itself can thus have similar effects. The findings have implications for measurement’s use, as well as for the psychology of external incentives and intrinsic motivation.
... Forty percent of participants disengage with their device by 6 months, and by 1 year only ten percent still used their monitors (Segar, 2017). An array of reasons have been identified as contributing to the discontinued use of wearable activity monitors including the objectification of bodily movement (Toner, 2018), habit formation (Nafus & Sherman, 2014), emotional distress and unhappiness (Duus et al., 2018;Etkin, 2016;Goodyear, Kerner & Quennerstedt, 2017) and increased feelings of pressure and guilt linked to goal attainment (Duus & Cooray, 2015). Finally, literature on wearable activity monitors and PA suggests that when individuals place emphasis on extrinsic motivators such as external rewards given from an app (e.g., badge, trophy), it can undermine intrinsic motivation and lead to disengagement if the extrinsic reward is removed (Attig & Franke, 2018;Etkin, 2016;Karaponos et al., 2016;Renfree, Harrison, Marshall, Stawarz, & Cox, 2016). ...
... An array of reasons have been identified as contributing to the discontinued use of wearable activity monitors including the objectification of bodily movement (Toner, 2018), habit formation (Nafus & Sherman, 2014), emotional distress and unhappiness (Duus et al., 2018;Etkin, 2016;Goodyear, Kerner & Quennerstedt, 2017) and increased feelings of pressure and guilt linked to goal attainment (Duus & Cooray, 2015). Finally, literature on wearable activity monitors and PA suggests that when individuals place emphasis on extrinsic motivators such as external rewards given from an app (e.g., badge, trophy), it can undermine intrinsic motivation and lead to disengagement if the extrinsic reward is removed (Attig & Franke, 2018;Etkin, 2016;Karaponos et al., 2016;Renfree, Harrison, Marshall, Stawarz, & Cox, 2016). ...
... As such, greater understanding of motivational consequences of wearable activity monitors is needed. Researchers have suggested that the use of wearable activity monitors may undermine intrinsic motivation for PA (Attig & Franke, 2018;Etkin, 2016;Karaponos et al., 2016;Renfree et al., 2016). ...
... However, while the cultural popularity and subjective appeal of digitized "self-tracking" practices appears to be on the rise due to the aptitude of contemporary digital devices to enlighten individual users with "selfknowledge through numbers" (Kelly & Wolf, 2007), the adverse physiological and psychological effects of self-monitoring behaviors are beginning to be discerned. In a research article entitled, "The Hidden Cost of Personal Quantification" (Etkin, 2016), psychologist Jordan Etkin (2016) asks, "might the new tools people are using [for] quantifying life-rob them of some of the benefits of engaging in those activities?" (p. ...
... However, while the cultural popularity and subjective appeal of digitized "self-tracking" practices appears to be on the rise due to the aptitude of contemporary digital devices to enlighten individual users with "selfknowledge through numbers" (Kelly & Wolf, 2007), the adverse physiological and psychological effects of self-monitoring behaviors are beginning to be discerned. In a research article entitled, "The Hidden Cost of Personal Quantification" (Etkin, 2016), psychologist Jordan Etkin (2016) asks, "might the new tools people are using [for] quantifying life-rob them of some of the benefits of engaging in those activities?" (p. ...
... 967). Etkin's (2016) study reveals that while the initial enthusiasm of "personal quantification" using a digital wearable data-tracking device can motivate and stimulate individuals to increase the amount of physical activity that they engage in, "it can simultaneously reduce how much people enjoy those activities" (p. 967); with measurement consequentially "undermin[ing] intrinsic motivation" (p. ...
This article explores an alternative autoethnographic methodological approach, using embodied praxis and sound, for critically re-thinking contemporary subjective health practices of digital ‘self-tracking’; popularized in recent years through the rise in wearable biometric fitness devices, and online socio-cultural movements such as the Quantified Self and Strava platforms, which enable subjects to “share” their quantifiable body-data metrics. Through a performative praxis case study titled Speaking the Data (2017), the author renegotiates the “voice” of subjective agency within the quantitative data-discourse, “speaking the data” that her body is producing in “real-time” on a digital smart-bike machine. This embodied renegotiation, recorded using a sound “data-stream,” produces an alternative subjective data-set which is extended to the reader, who is invited to become “listener” in the theoretical/experiential praxis space. The sound “data-stream” thus proffers an affective expansion to our perceptions of what “body-data” can be, extending the possibilities for the digitally mediated body beyond biometric forms of quantification, through other sensorial registers of embodiment, using sound, rhythmic affect and lived experience.
... If this analysis of the effects of quantification on benefits of activity engagement is correct, it could be argued that the very practice of ABA is practically and/or ethically questionable on the grounds it reduces enjoyment in those activities being measured. Fortunately, inspection of the methods and results of Etkin [3] suggest the claims of detrimental effects of measurement are unwarranted. First, Etkin's support for the argument that reward can undermine intrinsic interest [6]. ...
... As mentioned, results of the current study is not consistent with the notion that personal quantification unilaterally undermines intrinsic interest and the findings of Etkin [3]. In the study completed by Etkin [3], 105 college students were paid to spend 10 minutes coloring simple shapes (Experiment 1), 195 students were paid to wear a pedometer for a day (Experiments 2 and 3), 310 college students were paid to read for eight minutes (Experiment 4), 240 adults recruited online from Amazon's Turk were paid to read for 10 minutes (Experiment 5), and 66 students to were paid to read for 10 minutes (Experiment 6). ...
... As mentioned, results of the current study is not consistent with the notion that personal quantification unilaterally undermines intrinsic interest and the findings of Etkin [3]. In the study completed by Etkin [3], 105 college students were paid to spend 10 minutes coloring simple shapes (Experiment 1), 195 students were paid to wear a pedometer for a day (Experiments 2 and 3), 310 college students were paid to read for eight minutes (Experiment 4), 240 adults recruited online from Amazon's Turk were paid to read for 10 minutes (Experiment 5), and 66 students to were paid to read for 10 minutes (Experiment 6). In each experiment, either the activity that participants were paid for was overtly measured (experimental groups) or not (control groups). ...
Background: Behavior analysis relies on the measurement and quantification of behavior. Recent research has argued that measuring and quantifying behavior may have detrimental effects on the measured behaviors. To investigate this claim, the current study surveyed avid cyclists to assess their reported yearly biking habits, use of personal quantification devices, reported interest/enjoyment in biking, and use of exercise-related social media platforms.
Methods: Two groups of avid bikers were surveyed about biking and how personal quantification affected interest. Participants were asked a series of questions about their cycling habits in general, their use of a bike computer for personal quantification, questions about their enjoyment in biking activities, and use of exercise-related social media platforms.
Results: Nearly all (94%) bikers reported using computerized personal quantification using bike computers, reported high levels of enjoyment, and reported they found quantification made bicycling
more enjoyable and interesting.
Conclusion: This result refutes claims that personal quantification undermines intrinsic interest, enjoyment, or happiness. Personal quantification facilitates continued activity engagement and sharing
quantified information with other interested individuals may make interesting activities even more interesting. Rather than “undermine intrinsic interest” or “turn play into work,” personal quantification
is supplemental to the total activity experience. The results obtained here indicate personal quantification can facilitate expert performance and the experience of flow.
... Recent research shows conflicting results: on the one hand, users of these apps express positive effects such as increased motivation to engage in physical activity (Conroy, Yang & Maher, 2014;Fanning, Mullen & McAuley, 2012;Muntaner, Vidal-Conti & Palou, 2016). On the other hand, adverse effects include addiction or mere rejection of apps (Barratt, 2017;Etkin, 2016;Renfree et al., 2016). In terms of their effects on engagement in physical activity, Greco et al. (2017) and Fukuoka et al. (2018) observed an absence in the difference between those using SFMAs and those following a sports routine without them. ...
... When there is a feeling that a device requires 'work', the pleasure related to physical activity decreases. Etkin (2016) argues that the expected enhancement of a workout is often coupled with diminished pleasure when self-tracking, due to both a decrease in intrinsic motivation and an excessive focus on results. A study on connected cyclists (Lupton et al., in press) shows that while the motivation and rewards obtained through SFMAs are appreciated, the data collection and analysis necessitates attention on a daily basis (e.g. ...
Sport and fitness mobile applications (SFMAs) have led to significant changes in how people engage in sport and physical activity. This development is part of a broader trend of self-tracking (the ‘quantified self’) and gamification, whose effects are discussed in an increasing number of publications in the humanities and social sciences. The aim of this interdisciplinary literature review is to provide an overview of the main research results on these apps. It summarises their emergence and the discourse of those who promote them, the factors leading to their adoption, their uses in practice, the reasons for their abandonment or rejection, and the risks and perverse effects linked to their use. The main sociological, psychological and philosophical interpretations of the phenomenon are also outlined: mobile applications as a tool for behaviour change, the agentive capacities of these sociotechnical systems, and the contemporary imperative of self-management. Some users find real support in SFMAs to set goals, plan their sessions, and/or to make physical activity a regular routine. However, for others, their use becomes excessive, leading to frustration or changes in social behaviour. Many studies point out the difficulty of engaging athletes in the use of SFMAs in a lasting way. While instances of long-term and balanced use are not uncommon, they coexist with use that borders on obsession, or even forms of dependence. We conclude with current research priorities and highlight avenues of research that merit further study.
... Participants were shown a set of photographs from the Open Affective Standardized Image Set (OASIS; Kurdi, Lozano, and Banaji 2017). They were asked to indicate their reaction to each photograph using an EL checklist (Rocklage and Fazio 2015, 2016. This checklist provided participants with a large set of adjectives that ranged from positive to negative and from high to low emotionality. ...
... Materials: Measuring Emotionality. Participants were asked to give their reaction to each photograph using an EL checklist (Rocklage and Fazio 2015, 2016. This checklist contained a list of 42 adjectives that provided (1) With controls (2) With genre (3) Predicting peak emotionality (4) Primary predictor Experts ( participants the ability to indicate a wide range of positivity ("exciting") to negativity ("undesirable") and high emotionality ("amazing") to low emotionality ("superior"). ...
Expertise provides numerous benefits. Experts process information more efficiently, remember information better, and often make better decisions. Consumers pursue expertise in domains they love and chase experiences that make them feel something. Yet, might becoming an expert carry a cost for these very feelings? Across more than 700,000 consumers and 6 million observations, developing expertise in a hedonic domain predicts consumers becoming more emotionally numb – i.e., having less intense emotion in response to their experiences. This numbness occurs across a range of domains – movies, photography, wine, and beer – and across diverse measures of emotion and expertise. It occurs in cross-sectional real-world data with certified experts, and in longitudinal real-world data that follows consumers over time and traces their emotional trajectories as they accrue expertise. Further, this numbness can be explained by the cognitive structure experts develop and apply within a domain. Experimentally inducing cognitive structure led novice consumers to experience greater numbness. However, shifting experts away from using their cognitive structure restored their experience of emotion. Thus, although consumers actively pursue expertise in domains that bring them pleasure, the present work is the first to show that this pursuit can come with a hedonic cost.
... Gamification could be a catalyst to increase the effects of the designed and intended persuasion. The study of unintended negative consequences of behavioural interventions is becoming an important research area [31][32][33][34][35]. ...
We introduce how gambling techniques slurred as gamification can be abusive and how adapting it for HCI can lay a practical basis for unethical designs, both in the commercial and applied research sectors. Based on the original notion of game theory, we argue that these techniques can be pervasive in our everyday socio-technical ecosystem. The digital technology industry’s commercial underpinnings frequently promote irrational user-behavior and using these design techniques in educational technology could foster negative user learning behaviors. Given the complexity of these concepts’ legal issues, it is not always easy to ensure that one does not cross the line. This study presents four gamification design predicaments that demand attention when designing gamification in (e)learning. The research has both theory and practical implications.
... Bascule de la motivation intrinsèque à une finalisation extrinsèque de l'activité (Deci & Ryan, 2000)! Le simple fait de se savoir quantifié (en lecture, coloriage, marche) focalise les sujets sur les outputs, c'est-à-dire sur le produit final, le rendement et l'issue de la tâche (Etkin, 2016). ...
Dynamique d'appropriation de l'objet technique.
Résonance et aliénation.
... Hence, this collective is heavily and obviously pervaded by (epistemic) knowledge. New insights into knowledge-intensive consumption collectives allow us to better understand phenomena in contemporary consumer culture such as expert systems (Latour & Deighton, 2018), nerd-cultures (Seregina & Weijo, 2016), self-trackers (Bode & Kristensen, 2016;Etkin, 2016;Lupton, 2014), users of smart technology (Bardhi & Eckhardt, 2017;Bettany & Kerrane, 2016;Hoffman & Novak, 93 2017), online forums (Arvidsson & Caliandro, 2015), opensource (Arvidsson, 2011), fandom (Kozinets, 2012), craft consumption (Campbell, 2005;Watson & Shove, 2008), and consumers communing around complex focal objects (Muniz & Schau, 2005). This literature has shown us, that collective consumption is inherently intertwined with knowledge and that there are no consumption collectives not pervaded by knowledge. ...
In this paper, we introduce the concept of saunascape. To that end, we
explore what kind of socio-material practices are carried out within sauna bathing, and thereby discover the elements of saunascape. We focus on interrelated practices of sauna bathing and address the agentic capacity of saunascape as it structures these practices. The data were generated through interviews that took place in sauna
departments at five different hotels in Finland. In total, 39 informants participated in interviews. The findings show four interconnected socio-material practices relating to sauna bathing: purification, nostalgization, medicalization and democratization. As saunascape emerges in the nexus of these practices, its spatially-constructed
elements (places, people, meanings and material processes) appear connected to practices. The study participates in discussions in which the spatiality and non-human agency in consumption practices are evolved. Furthermore, it showcases an example of how an understudied cultural-historical phenomenon may be linked to modern
consumption trends.
... (Esim. Nafus & Sherman 2014;Etkin 2016;Moilanen 2017, 27.) Teknologisen kehityksen, huippuurheilun ammattimaistumisen ja hyvinvointitietoisuuden lisääntymisen ohella keskeinen makrotason taustatekijä urheilu-ja hyvinvointiteknologia-alan laajentumiselle on yksityisen sektorin merkityksen kasvu Suomessa 2000-luvulla. Kasvun taustalla on julkisen sektorin osittainen vetäytyminen liikuntapalveluiden tarjoajan roolista, mikä on korostunut taloudellisten laskusuhdanteiden aikana. ...
HOW TO CITE:
Eskola, I., & Laine, A. (2020). Suomen urheilu- ja hyvinvointiteknologia-ala urheilukulttuurin muutosten ilmentäjänä. Kulttuurintutkimus, 37(3-4), 84-102. Retrieved from https://journal.fi/kulttuurintutkimus/article/view/91106
... An example is in-time data collection by alerting a patient to act (e.g., ecologic momentary assessment or EMA), which yields more valid, reliable, and meaningful data (Silva et al. 2015;Depp et al. 2016;Kenny et al. 2016;Grist et al. 2017;Bakker and Rickard 2018;Chan et al. 2018). EMA aids clinician decision-making (e.g., mood assessment and treatment) (Wisniewski et al. 2019), but the time required may adversely impact patient motivation to input the data (Etkin 2016). ...
Asynchronous technologies like mobile health, e-mail, e-consult, and asynchronous video telepsychiatry are effective modes of service delivery to a variety of settings and populations. To ensure quality care, clinicians need skills, knowledge, and attitudes for these technologies. This scoping review was based on the research question, “What skills are needed for clinicians and trainees to provide quality care asynchronously have been published, and how can they be made measurable and reproducible to teach and assess them?” A key word search was done in 9 databases based on five concept areas: (1) competencies; (2) asynchronous technologies; (3) synchronous video; (4) clinical therapeutic relationship; and (5) consultation to primary care. From a total of 4812 potential references, two authors found a total of 86 papers based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. Clinical studies rarely discuss specific skillsets or competencies. Existing publications on video, social media, and mobile health were used to build an asynchronous technology competency set according to the Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education framework. Training, faculty development, and administrative changes to service delivery and workplace culture are suggested as part of institutional competencies. Research is needed on how to implement and evaluate asynchronous competencies for clinical care and training as part of organizational change to build a positive e-culture. Research is also needed across cultures and across user’s health, lifestyle, and clinical care experiences.
... Existing research argues that immediate monetary incentives can help overcome present bias in health decision-making and improve adaptation of preventative mHealth interventions [34][35][36]. However, extrinsic monetary incentives might lead to motivational crowding-out and diminish intrinsic motivation for behavior change over time [37,38]. Alternative strategies to overcome present bias and to increase risk awareness have been developed in related fields, such as pension planning [31] and taxation [39]. ...
... Furthermore, there is indication that self-monitoring of mood can have positive effects on emotional self-awareness [65]. However, it also needs to be considered that self-tracking may have negative effects [66][67][68]. While the evidence base on this is still very limited, it is still recommended in the literature to balance the burden for users with the predictive value of the data [69]. ...
Introduction
Major depression affects over 300 million people worldwide, but cases are often detected late or remain undetected. This increases the risk of symptom deterioration and chronification. Consequently, there is a high demand for low threshold but clinically sound approaches to depression detection. Recent studies show a great willingness among users of mobile health apps to assess daily depression symptoms. In this pilot study, we present a provisional validation of the depression screening app Moodpath. The app offers a 14-day ambulatory assessment (AA) of depression symptoms based on the ICD-10 criteria as well as ecologically momentary mood ratings that allow the study of short-term mood dynamics.
Materials and methods
N = 113 Moodpath users were selected through consecutive sampling and filled out the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) after completing 14 days of AA with 3 question blocks (morning, midday, and evening) per day. The psychometric properties (sensitivity, specificity, accuracy) of the ambulatory Moodpath screening were assessed based on the retrospective PHQ-9 screening result. In addition, several indicators of mood dynamics (e.g. average, inertia, instability), were calculated and investigated for their individual and incremental predictive value using regression models.
Results
We found a strong linear relationship between the PHQ-9 score and the AA Moodpath depression score (r = .76, p < .001). The app-based screening demonstrated a high sensitivity (.879) and acceptable specificity (.745). Different indicators of mood dynamics covered substantial amounts of PHQ-9 variance, depending on the number of days with mood data that were included in the analyses.
Discussion
AA and PHQ-9 shared a large proportion of variance but may not measure exactly the same construct. This may be due to the differences in the underlying diagnostic systems or due to differences in momentary and retrospective assessments. Further validation through structured clinical interviews is indicated. The results suggest that ambulatory assessed mood indicators are a promising addition to multimodal depression screening tools. Improving app-based AA screenings requires adapted screening algorithms and corresponding methods for the analysis of dynamic processes over time.
... Gamification could be seen as a catalyst to increase the effects of the designed and intended persuasion. The study of unintended negative consequences of behavioral interventions are becoming an important research area [19,21,39,53]. ...
Both academia and industry have shown an increased interest in gamification. To enhance the design and understanding of gamification there is a need to explore the negative aspects of the concept. Negative sides, “the darkness” of gamification is further explored in this paper. Through a systematic literature review the darkness of gamification is mapped and categorized into seven problem domains. This new information could help both industry and academia to acknowledge problem domains of gamification and develop better frameworks for designing gamification. It will also reignite the call to conduct more research about negative sides of gamification in order to improve the gamification experience.
... The most frequently used gamification elements are based on extrinsic rewards, such as badges and medals (O'Neil, 2019). As the use of wearables is seen to come at the expense of enjoyment, researchers advocate the inclusion of extrinsic rewards to encourage app usage (Etkin, 2016). The inclusion of gamification elements might also prevent users from stopping to use wearables, which is likely to happen after 6 to 12 months (Ledger, 2014). ...
... This paper argues that uncertainty stimuli can also be applied in serious situations, such as advertising campaigns and boring jobs (Ruan et al., 2018). Serious decisions can be made fun through uncertainty stimulation, and it is this ability to make non-gaming situations as enjoyable as gaming situations that is the core content of gamification (Etkin, 2016). Given the high degree of congruence between uncertainty stimuli and gamification, the playful use of uncertainty stimuli should be an important direction for future research that will greatly enrich the theoretical study of uncertainty and gamification. ...
... We note that although cases of purely extrinsically motivated activities (e.g., going to the dentist) and purely intrinsically motivated activities (e.g., eating a delicious cake) do exist, it is more often the case that activities offer both intrinsic and extrinsic incentives to some degree (Etkin, 2016;Fishbach & Choi, 2012). For example, when riding a bike one can receive intrinsic incentives (enjoyable experience) as well as extrinsic incentives (improved health), and reading can be entertaining (intrinsic), while also offering educational benefits (extrinsic). ...
... However, runners respond quite differently to the above strategies: some runners feel motivated [6,30,64], others report adverse effects [50]. Etkin et al. [9] even suggest that performance-driven interventions can undermine the enjoyment of being physically active. Although a segment of recreational runners might be encouraged by being 'faster' than others [64], several studies indicate that other types of runners are rather driven by health, social support or physical fitness [21,23,43,64]. ...
Running is a popular recreational sport, yet for many amateur runners it remains challenging to turn intentions into sustainable running behavior. Although the market offers a myriad of running-related devices that aim to motivate runners, these often focus on the training itself and not on overcoming the barriers experienced prior to the run. A better understanding of these barriers to running is essential to identify design opportunities for technologies supporting amateur runners. We conducted two complementary studies among participants of a women-only running event. Combining an online survey (N = 114) and a journey mapping activity (N = 13), we investigated the influence of motivational barriers and enablers in runners' rituals. Based on our findings, we created the Runner's Journey, a visual narrative highlighting actionable design opportunities for running motivation technology. We propose five design recommendations to overcome barriers among amateur runners.
... We extend recent literature on how technology, particularly smartphones, influences consumers' daily lives. Much of this research has shown detriments caused by mobile technology use, particularly when it is used to multitask (Thornton et al. 2014), to take part in virtual interactions during face-to-face interaction (Sbarra, Briskin, and Slachter 2019), or to track one's activities (Etkin 2016). In contrast, our research highlights an important benefit of technology use that may sometimes be overlooked. ...
Advances in technology, particularly smartphones, have unlocked new opportunities for consumers to generate content about experiences while they unfold (e.g., by texting, posting to social media, writing notes), and this behavior has become nearly ubiquitous. The present research examines the effects of generating content during ongoing experiences. Across nine studies, the authors show that generating content during an experience increases feelings of immersion and makes time feel like it is passing more quickly, which in turn enhances enjoyment of the experience. The authors investigate these effects across a broad array of experiences both inside and outside the lab that vary in duration from a few minutes to several hours, including positive and negative videos and real-life holiday celebrations. They conclude with several studies testing marketing interventions that increase content creation and find that consumers who are incentivized or motivated by social norms to generate content reap the same experiential benefits as those who create content organically. These findings illustrate how leveraging content creation to improve experiences can mutually benefit marketers and consumers.
... However, when it comes to real-life implementations, all technologies can potentially be used for good or bad. Moreover, the study of unintended negative consequences of behavioral interventions is growing and becoming an important research area [16,17,38,48]. ...
Influencing systems and persuasive technology (PT) should give their users a positive experience. While that sounds attractive and many rush implementing novel ideas things such as gamification, a serious professional and scientifically rich discussion is needed to portray a holistic picture on technology influence. Relatively little research has been aimed at exploring the negative aspects, outcomes, and side effects of PT. Therefore, this research aims at addressing this gap by reviewing the existing knowledge on dark patterns, demonstrating how intended Pt designs can be critically examined, introducing the Visibility-Darkness matrix to categorize and locate dark patterns, and proposing a Framework for Evaluating the Darkness of Persuasive Technology (FEDPT). The framework is instrumental for designers and developers of influential technology, as it clarifies an area where their products and services can have a negative impact on well-being, in other words, can become harmful to the users.
... However, when it comes to real-life implementations, all technologies can potentially be used for good or bad. Moreover, the study of unintended negative consequences of behavioral interventions is growing and becoming an important research area [16,17,38,48]. ...
While bringing business and computer science into an improved alignment using the theoretical foundations of information and computation is one of the main aims of information science, improved design knowledge from other interdisciplinary research fields like human-computer interaction (HCI) could advance different information system (IS) design thinking and processes. Since structuring the IS design process for a sustainable result is challenging, a HCI viewpoint and focus on IS design could be beneficial due to the multi and interdisciplinary nature of HCI. In this paper an iterative design process for sustainable IS design conceptualized from HCI is proposed. The resulting design process highlighted the role of HCI in building knowledge in information science. This was achieved by showing the influence of different design choices on user behavior and in that way contributing towards generating reusable designs in different phases of the sustainable IS design process.
... For example, an AI-enabled device that is constantly listening to biometric data could, over time, become paradoxically less invasive than one that listens only when activated (Turkle 2008). Complementing recent scholarship on the consequences of personal quantification (Etkin 2016), future research should address how the frequency of data capture (e.g., intermittent vs. continuous) affects perceived exploitation (RQA6). As another example, information collected about the physical environment, such as that acquired by a smart refrigerator, may be less likely to generate feelings of exploitation than information collected about the self, such as that acquired by a fitness tracker (RQA7). ...
Artificial intelligence (AI) helps companies offer important benefits to consumers, such as health monitoring with wearable devices, advice with recommender systems, peace of mind with smart household products, and convenience with voice-activated virtual assistants. However, although AI can be seen as a neutral tool to be evaluated on efficiency and accuracy, this approach does not consider the social and individual challenges that can occur when AI is deployed. This research aims to bridge these two perspectives: on one side, the authors acknowledge the value that embedding AI technology into products and services can provide to consumers. On the other side, the authors build on and integrate sociological and psychological scholarship to examine some of the costs consumers experience in their interactions with AI. In doing so, the authors identify four types of consumer experiences with AI: (1) data capture, (2) classification, (3) delegation, and (4) social. This approach allows the authors to discuss policy and managerial avenues to address the ways in which consumers may fail to experience value in organizations’ investments into AI and to lay out an agenda for future research.
... Variety seeking occurs for several reasons. First, diversification can increase stimulation (Etkin 2016;Gullo, Berger, Etkin, & Bollinger 2018;Huang, Liang, Weinberg, & Gorn 2019) and thus slows satiation (Galak, Kruger & Loewenstein 2013). It also confers a sense of control and productivity (Etkin & Mogilner 2016;Yoon & Kim 2018) and ameliorates decision anxiety (Jeong, Christensen, & Drolet 2016), in part, by hedging against the risk that future tastes will change (Salisbury & Feinberg 2008). ...
To explain trade-offs in choice, researchers have proposed myriad phenomena and decision rules, each paired with separate theories and idiosyncratic vocabularies. Yet most choice problems are ultimately resolved with one of just two types of solutions: mixed or extreme. For example, people adopt mixed solutions for resolving trade-offs when they allow exercising to license indulgence afterward (balancing between goals), read different literary genres (variety seeking), and order medium-sized coffees (the compromise effect). By contrast, when people adopt extreme solutions for resolving these exact same trade-offs, they exhibit highlighting, consistency seeking, and compromise avoidance, respectively. Our review of the choice literature first illustrates how many seemingly unrelated phenomena actually share the same underlying psychology. We then identify variables that promote one solution versus the other. These variables, in turn, systematically influence which of opposite choice effects arise (e.g., highlighting versus balancing). Finally, we demonstrate how several mistakes people purport to make can potentially instead be reinterpreted as mixed solutions for resolving trade-offs. We conclude with guidance for distinguishing mistakes from mixed solutions.
Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Psychology, Volume 72 is January 4, 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.
... Moreover, changes of the body may be discerned early on, resulting in timely alerts to users and their physicians linked to immediate recommended actions and better disease prevention and treatment. While activity levels of individuals may be impacted positively, it is worth noting quantification may hinder an individual's enjoyment of activities being tracked through impeding intrinsic motivation (Etkin 2016). ...
Recently, biometric data generated by fingerprints, hand geometry, heart rate, voice patterns, facial characteristics and expressions, brain activity and body movement has increased in both volume and prominence. Surprisingly, academic business literature has remained relatively silent on the immense potential of biometric data, as well as on
the various dangers that come with its collection and usage. This article sets out to (1) detail what biometric data entails and how it may be used, (2) describe opportunities associated with using biometric data in various business applications, (3) discuss challenges related to biometric data collection and usage, privacy and security, storage
and safety, and potential for reduced inclusiveness and enhanced biases, and (4) outline related directions for future research.
... The way users perceive, interpret, or act on this information, such as BMI, glucose level, oxygen saturation, pulse rate, etc., may determine their psychological status. Evidence connects self-monitoring to negative psychological consequences [2,10,11], which may also apply to wearable devices. ...
Aim:
This study explores the possible impact of wearables on psychological distress and their implications on designs.
Method:
The study conceptualizes and tests two exploratory models by analyzing the US-based Health Information National Trends Survey of 2019 and 2020. Six variants from the databases were used in the study as predictors. We used models 4 and 6 of the Hayes PROCESS macros to test our conceptual parallel and sequential mediation models, respectively.
Results:
The finding indicates significant and negative indirect effects of 'Use of wearable device' on 'Psychological distress.' In parallel mediation models, 'self-care' and 'health perception' were noted to be significant mediators. Wearable devices were associated with improved 'Health perception,' 'Self-care,' and longer 'workout duration,', which in turn helped reduce 'psychological distress' (better mental health). The sequential mediation model captured the indirect effect of 'Use of wearable device' on 'Psychological distress' when sequentially mediated by 'workout duration,' 'BMI,' 'self-care,' and 'health perception' in the given order.
Conclusion:
As the adoption of digital wearables is increasing due to their growing potential to augment physiological and psychosocial health, it is critical that these technologies are designed to address the needs of users from diverse backgrounds (race, education level, age).
... This might be in opposition to values which stakeholders in these systems carry [1]. Also, it has been found that the measurement act itself, which is required in tokenisation for quantifying and proving of actions [63], can reduce intrinsic motivation and thus creativity and endurance in individuals [86]. ...
Cryptoeconomic incentives in the form of blockchain-based tokens are seen as an enabler of the sharing economy which could shift society towards greater sustainability. Nevertheless, knowledge about the impact of those tokens on human sharing behavior is still limited, which challenges the design of effective cryptoeconomic incentives. This study applies the theory of self-determination to investigate the impact of those tokens on human behavior in an information sharing scenario. By utilising an experimental methodology in the form of a randomized control trial with a 2x2 factorial design involving 132 participants, the effects of two token incentives on human information sharing behavior are analysed. Individuals obtain these tokens in exchange for their shared information. Based on the collected tokens, individuals receive a monetary payment and build reputation. Besides investigating the effect of these incentives on the quantity of shared information, the study includes quality characteristics of information, such as accuracy and contextualisation. The focus on quantity while excluding quality has been identified as a limitation in previous work. Besides confirming previously known effects such as a crowding out of intrinsic motivation by incentives which also exists for blockchain-based tokens, the findings of this work show a until now unreported interaction effect between multiple tokens when applied simultaneously. The findings are critically discussed and put into context of recent work and ethical considerations. The theory-based, empirical study is of interest to those investigating the effect of cryptoeconomic tokens or digital currencies on human behavior and supports the community to design effective personalized incentives for sharing economies.
... Existing research argues that immediate monetary incentives can help overcome present bias in health decision-making and improve adaptation of preventative mHealth interventions [34][35][36]. However, extrinsic monetary incentives might lead to motivational crowding-out and diminish intrinsic motivation for behavior change over time [37,38]. Alternative strategies to overcome present bias and to increase risk awareness have been developed in related fields, such as pension planning [31] and taxation [39]. ...
Background:
Insufficient physical activity and unhealthy diets are contributing to the rise in noncommunicable diseases. Preventative mobile health (mHealth) interventions may help reverse this trend, but present bias might reduce their effectiveness. Future-self avatar interventions have resulted in behavior change in related fields, yet evidence of whether such interventions can change health behavior is lacking.
Objective:
We aimed to investigate the impact of a future-self avatar mHealth intervention on physical activity and food purchasing behavior and examine the feasibility of a novel automated nutrition tracking system. We also aimed to understand how this intervention impacts related attitudinal and motivational constructs.
Methods:
We conducted a 12-week parallel randomized controlled trial (RCT), followed by semistructured interviews. German-speaking smartphone users aged ≥18 years living in Switzerland and using at least one of the two leading Swiss grocery loyalty cards, were recruited for the trial. Data were collected from November 2020 to April 2021. The intervention group received the FutureMe intervention, a physical activity and food purchase tracking mobile phone app that uses a future-self avatar as the primary interface and provides participants with personalized food basket analysis and shopping tips. The control group received a conventional text- and graphic-based primary interface intervention. We pioneered a novel system to track nutrition by leveraging digital receipts from loyalty card data and analyzing food purchases in a fully automated way. Data were consolidated in 4-week intervals, and nonparametric tests were conducted to test for within- and between-group differences.
Results:
We recruited 167 participants, and 95 eligible participants were randomized into either the intervention (n=42) or control group (n=53). The median age was 44 years (IQR 19), and the gender ratio was balanced (female 52/95, 55%). Attrition was unexpectedly high with only 30 participants completing the intervention, negatively impacting the statistical power. The FutureMe intervention led to small statistically insignificant increases in physical activity (median +242 steps/day) and small insignificant improvements in the nutritional quality of food purchases (median -1.28 British Food Standards Agency Nutrient Profiling System Dietary Index points) at the end of the intervention. Intrinsic motivation significantly increased (P=.03) in the FutureMe group, but decreased in the control group. Outcome expectancy directionally increased in the FutureMe group, but decreased in the control group. Leveraging loyalty card data to track the nutritional quality of food purchases was found to be a feasible and accepted fully automated nutrition tracking system.
Conclusions:
Preventative future-self avatar mHealth interventions promise to encourage improvements in physical activity and food purchasing behavior in healthy population groups. A full-powered RCT is needed to confirm this preliminary evidence and to investigate how future-self avatars might be modified to reduce attrition, overcome present bias, and promote sustainable behavior change.
Trial registration:
ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04505124; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04505124.
... However, before low-effort, in-the-moment tracking can be used as a scientifically sound data acquisition method, more clarity is needed on the quality of the collected data. In addition to the barriers described above, the tracked experience may also be distorted because it is being tracked, a phenomenon that is addressed as the observer effect [32,41]. Therefore, further research is needed into the validity and reliability of the collected data, and how these relate to those of other data collection methods. ...
Background:
Individuals' self-tracking of subjectively experienced phenomena related to health can be challenging, as current options for instrumentation often involve too much effort in the moment or rely on retrospective self-reporting, which is likely to impair accuracy and compliance.
Objective:
This study aims to assess the usability and perceived usefulness of low-effort, in-the-moment self-tracking using simple instrumentation and to establish the amount of support needed when using this approach.
Methods:
In this exploratory study, the One Button Tracker-a press-button device that records time stamps and durations of button presses-was used for self-tracking. A total of 13 employees of an academic medical center chose a personal research question and used the One Button Tracker to actively track specific subjectively experienced phenomena for 2 to 4 weeks. To assess usability and usefulness, we combined qualitative data from semistructured interviews with quantitative results from the System Usability Scale.
Results:
In total, 29 barriers and 15 facilitators for using the One Button Tracker were found. Ease of use was the most frequently mentioned facilitator. The One Button Tracker's usability received a median System Usability Scale score of 75.0 (IQR 42.50), which is considered as good usability. Participants experienced effects such as an increased awareness of the tracked phenomenon, a confirmation of personal knowledge, a gain of insight, and behavior change. Support and guidance during all stages of the self-tracking process were judged as valuable.
Conclusions:
The low-effort, in-the-moment self-tracking of subjectively experienced phenomena has been shown to support personal knowledge gain and health behavior change for people with an interest in health promotion. After addressing barriers and formally validating the collected data, self-tracking devices may well be helpful for additional user types or health questions.
... An insightful recent example of this trend is the smart ring that NBA players wear to monitor heart rate and body temperature to predict Covid-19 exposure (Diaz, 2020). In the marketing literature, the principle of the quantified self has been investigated in the context of effects of quantified self on enjoyment (Etkin, 2016), connected devices and the evolution of customer intelligence (Cooke & Zubcsek, 2017), in relation to big data (Thompson, 2019), the proliferation of health discourses using a bio-political framework (Yngfalk & Fyrberg Yngfalk, 2015), biopolitical marketing and value co-creation through self-tracking (Charitsis et al., 2019), how computer algorithms shape consumer agency (Kumar Kaliyamurthy et al., 2019), and self-quantification of the credit worthy consumer (DuFault & Schouten, 2020). ...
By enabling users to digitally monitor their health and behaviour, wearable technologies foster the perspective of the quantified self, a cultural phenomenon emphasising personal improvement through self-tracking. This vision, in turn, provides a basis for new forms of social engagement. In this netnographic study, we explore a brand community for users of the Fitbit wearable device. Our analysis reveals two structural dynamics – material agency and quantitative anchoring – which create a foundation for what we label ‘accidental transhumanism’, a transitional movement towards a transhumanist vision based on self-quantification, self-extension, and integration with technology. We further highlight the social engagement mechanisms, including motivating empowerment, friendly rivalry, and trusting engagement, that are built upon this foundation. Leveraging these findings, we theorise a novel model of the interaction of consumers and system artefacts in socio-technical assemblages. We refer to this novel phenomenon of brand community centred on self-quantification as quantified self-in-community, and consider both the beneficial and potentially deleterious impacts that it presents.
... Kerner and Goodyear [17] reported that participants who had other people monitor their progress presented a risk of disappointing others and the potential of causing them embarrassment and feeling judged. The constant measurement by WFTs can draw a user's attention to the outcome and undermine intrinsic motivation by making activities feel less enjoyable [27]. The increase in introjected regulation in our results may, in part, explain the large decrease in PA. ...
The motivational influence of wearable fitness technology (WFT) on increasing physical activity (PA) is unclear, and improvements in PA have been shown to be driven by both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. In the current study, PA (daily number of steps), moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity, and muscular strength training were measured over 6 months on, originally, 16 randomly selected sedentary community workers (mean age = 51 years). Moreover, self-determined motivation (Behavioral Regulation in Exercise Questionnaire-2) was measured before, midway, and after a 6-month intervention program that included motivational interviewing, as well as the use of WFT and a structured outdoor gym program. Our findings showed WFT, in combination with motivational interviewing, initially helped the participants meet recommended guidelines for PA in terms of at least 10,000 steps per day, and at least 150 min of moderate aerobic activity per week. There was a large decrease in participants’ PA and increase in introjected motivation between the first half (3 months) and the second half of the intervention (6 months). The increase in introjected motivation suggests that toward the end of the 6-month intervention, participants engaged in PA to satisfy external demands or avoid guilt, which may lead to less-persistent behavior change.
... The second, but perhaps more important, goal is to maximize results. Recent research suggests that strategies that help maximize activity can threaten to maximize results both for work and for leisure [16,17]. ...
Appropriate time management allows individuals to achieve work and personal goals, plan tasks, set priorities, eliminate disruptive effects, and increase work efficiency and productivity. The aim of the paper is to evaluate the effectiveness of managerial work and the performance of managers of food companies in the V4 countries (Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland) from the perspective of time management principles, point out the shortcomings and reserves that can ensure time management, and propose solutions to improve business practice. We set five research assumptions in order to evaluate the situation comprehensively. A survey carried out from September 2020 to January 2021 involved 1588 managers working at various levels of management. Statistical methods and tests were used for data processing and their subsequent evaluation. The data were processed using Microsoft Excel 2016, the statistical software SAS Enterprise Guide 7.1, and XLSTAT. The analysis showed that three-quarters of managers are aware of the value of their time. More than half of the managers involved try to regularly review their agenda in order to identify gaps in the use of time and to avoid repeating unproductive practices. Only half of the managers make arrangements not to think about work in their free time. The managers spend the most time in their work dealing with administration. Intensifying the implementation of ICT (information and communication technologies) in the work of the manager has the effect of increasing the efficiency of the division and use of working time of managers. Based on our findings, we consider the goal orientation, positive motivation, systematic training, and development of managers as a key prerequisite for efficiency of managerial work and performance of managers and their effective time management.
... In another study, attending (vs. not attending) to the output of an activity, such as by counting the number of steps walked or the number of pages colored, made participants feel that their task was required work and less enjoyable (Etkin 2016). To increase IM, it is therefore best to shift focus away from the output and to the experience. ...
Intrinsic motivation (IM) is key for persistence at work. When they are intrinsically motivated, people experience work activities as an end in itself, such that the activity and its goal collide. The result is increased interest and enjoyment of work activities. In this article, we review the current state of knowledge on IM, including studies within organizational, cognitive, and social psychology. We distinguish our structural perspective, which defines IM as the overlap between means and ends (e.g., the means-ends fusion model), from content-based approaches to study IM. We specifically discuss three questions: ( a) What is IM and why does it matter, ( b) how can individuals and organizations increase IM, and ( c) what biases and misconceptions do employees and managers hold about IM?
Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, Volume 9 is January 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.
... One major form of personalization afforded by digital technologies is the tracking of health behaviors (e.g., fitness, sleeping, eating; Handel and Kolstad 2017). Such personalized tracking can be motivating to consumers, though sometimes hurting enjoyment of the tracked behavior (Etkin 2016). The personal health data generated can also enable digital provision of personalized health challenges and interventions (Faulkner 2019), increasing accountability to specific health goals (Thompson-Felty and Johnston 2017). ...
... Adding to Atasoy and Morewedge's (2018) investigation of psychological ownership, our study focuses on the role of a new mechanism, self-verification. By showing that dematerialization can frustrate identity goals, our studies also contribute to the growing literature on the dark sides of technology (e.g., Etkin, 2016;Leung, Paolacci, & Puntoni, 2018;Wilcox & Stephen, 2013). Finally, the findings have direct managerial implications, which we discuss later. ...
Only a few years ago, people interested in novels or movies had no choice but to use physical media such as books or DVDs. Technological advances allowed dematerializing these products, making consumption instantly accessible with a download. The trend towards dematerialization has been steady across product domains, and recent confinement measures might further accelerate it. We investigate how preferences for dematerialized products depend on people’s identity motives in consumption. In a series of studies, we find that the identity‐relevance of a product increases the appeal of its physical versions. Even when the hedonic experience is identical (e.g., watching a movie), material products are better tools for consumers to self‐verify (i.e., provide better feedback to consumers about the identity which is implicated in consumption). As a result, identity‐motivated consumers are more likely to forgo the benefits of dematerialization. This finding has implications for our understanding of digitized consumption and for the marketing of media products.
... Par ailleurs, en référence à la théorie de « l'auto-détermination » (Deci & Ryan, 2000), la quantification favoriserait la bascule d'une finalisation intrinsèque de la pratique (par exemple, courir pour le simple plaisir de courir) à une motivation purement extrinsèque, laquelle constitue un excellent prédicteur de l'abandon de la pratique physique. En effet, dès lors qu'ils quantifient leurs performances, les sportifs tendent à se focaliser davantage sur le produit final de la tâche (c'est-à-dire sur l'issue de l'action) et, ce faisant, à se détourner du processus même de l'activité ainsi que des sensations et émotions qui y sont associées (Etkin, 2016). À un deuxième niveau, le self-tracking générerait un « conflit de buts » chez le pratiquant, tiraillé entre, d'une part, la recherche immédiate d'émotions (dont le plaisir) et, d'autre part, l'objectif différé de produire une performance. ...
Les champs des loisirs sportifs et de l’EPS connaissent actuellement un engouement important autour du développement des pratiques d’auto-quantification ; celles-ci consistent à mesurer, en temps réel, l’évolution de ses propres performances et de ses variables biologiques au moyen d’un dispositif numérique portatif. Si plusieurs propositions pédagogiques insistent sur les potentialités éducatives de ces outils, d’autres études, plus critiques, révèlent que, suite à une phase initiale d’engouement, certains élèves témoignent d’attitudes de résistance voire de désengagement vis-à-vis de ces instruments et, plus largement, de l’activité physique. Plusieurs usages dysfonctionnels de l’auto-quantification pourraient, en effet, s’avérer néfastes au bien-être de l’utilisateur, dès lors contraint de l’abandonner. Tout à la fois conscients des dérives possibles de la mise en chiffres de soi et de ses potentialités éducatives, nous proposons une réflexion pédagogique de nature non normative : en effet, il ne s’agira pas d’imposer, a priori et uniformément à tous les élèves, un même usage, supposé pertinent, du self-tracking. À l’inverse, nous les encouragerons, au travers d’une attitude expérimentale et comparative, à tester divers usages de l’outil et à en apprécier les conséquences différentielles sur leurs performances, leurs ressentis, leurs motivations et leurs émotions, afin de découvrir, par essais-erreurs, les utilisations qui leur sont, individuellement, le plus profitables. Nous proposerons ensuite d’entraîner les élèves à la confrontation systématique des données quantitatives recueillies avec les ressentis singuliers qu’ils éprouvent, dans le but d’affiner leurs savoir-faire perceptifs. Enfin, en guise d’ouverture, nous proposerons d’engager chaque élève, à l’échelle de l’année scolaire, dans la conception et la mise en œuvre d’un « projet personnalisé d’auto-quantification » visant à le préparer, de façon lucide, aux multiples situations d’auto-quantification auxquelles il pourra être confronté.
The fields of sports leisure and Physical Education (PE) are currently experiencing a major craze around the development of self-quantification practices; these practices consist in measuring, in real time, the evolution of one's own performance and biological variables using a wearable digital device. While several pedagogical proposals insist on the educational potential of these tools, others studies, more critical, reveal that some students show, after an initial phase of enthusiasm, attitudes of resistance or even disengagement towards the device in itself and, more globally, the physical activity. Several dysfunctional uses of self-quantification could be harmful to the well-being of the user who is, then, forced to give it up. We propose a non-normative pedagogical reflection: it will not deal with imposing, uniformly to all the students, the same use of self-tracking. On the contrary, we encourage them to test various uses of the tool and to appreciate the differential consequences on their performances, feelings, motivations and emotions, in order to discover the uses that are most profitable for them individually, through an experimental and comparative approach. We, then, propose to train the students to systematically confront the quantitative data collected with the singular feelings of their experiences in order to refine their perceptual skills. Finally, as an opening, we suggest to engage each student, at the scale of the school year, in the design and the implementation of a "personalized self-quantification project" whose aim is to train for the multiple self-quantification situations they will be probably confronted with.
Self-monitoring devices are becoming increasingly popular in the support of physical activity experiences. These devices mostly represent on-screen data using numbers and graphs and in doing so, they may miss multi-sensorial methods for engaging with data. Embracing the opportunity for pleasurable interactions with one's own data through the use of different materials and digital fabrication technology, we designed and studied three systems that turn this data into 3D-printed plastic artifacts, sports drinks, and 3D-printed chocolate treats. We utilize the insights gained from associated studies, related literature, and our experiences in designing these systems to develop a conceptual framework, “ Shelfie. ” The “ Shelfie ” framework has 13 cards that convey key themes for creating material representations of physical activity data. Through this framework, we present a conceptual understanding of relationships between material representation and physical activity data and contribute guidelines to the design of meaningful material representations of physical activity data.
Companies neither fully exploit the potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI), nor that of Machine Learning (ML), its most prominent method. This is true in particular of marketing, where its possible use extends beyond mere segmentation, personalization, and decision-making. We explore the drivers of and barriers to AI and ML in marketing by adopting a dual strategic and behavioral focus, which provides both an inward (AI and ML for marketers) and an outward (AI and ML for customers) perspective. From our mixed-method approach (a Delphi study, a survey, and two focus groups), we derive several research propositions that address the challenges facing marketing managers and organizations in three distinct domains: (1) Culture, Strategy, and Implementation; (2) Decision-Making and Ethics; (3) Customer Management. Our findings contribute to better understanding the human factor behind AI and ML, and aim to stimulate interdisciplinary inquiry across marketing, organizational behavior, psychology, and ethics.
Self-tracking technologies bring a new set of experiences into our lives. Through sensors and ubiquitous measurements of bodily performance, a new form of automation experience shapes our understanding of our body and our behavior. While for many individuals self-tracking has an important role in their daily lives, a theoretical understanding of the level and behavioral manifestations of commitment to self-tracking is still missing. This paper introduces the concept of commitment to self-tracking and presents the development and first validation of a new 12-item behavior-based scale for its measurement, the Commitment to Self-Tracking (C2ST) scale. Using online survey data from individuals wearing self-tracking technology (N = 300), we explore the underlying factor structure of the scale and determine its reliability and validity. An analysis of the survey data indicates that commitment to self-tracking positively correlates with autonomous motivation for tracking and negatively correlates with controlled motivation. The C2ST scale brings insights on how self-tracking technology, as a novel automation experience, is affecting users’ everyday behaviors. Overall, by emphasizing the feasibility of defining commitment behaviorally, the paper concludes with implications for theory and practice and suggests directions for future research.
We examine consumers’ interactions with smart objects using a novel mixed method approach, guided by assemblage theory, to discover the emergence of automation practices. We use a unique text data set from the web service IFTTT representing hundreds of thousands of applets that represent “if-then” connections between pairs of Internet services. Consumers use these applets to automate events in their daily lives. We quantitatively identify and qualitatively interpret automation assemblages that emerge bottom-up as different consumers create similar applets within unique social contexts. Our data discovery approach combines word embeddings, density-based clustering, and nonlinear dimensionality reduction with an inductive approach to thematic analysis. We uncover 127 nested automation assemblages that correspond to automation practices. Practices are interpreted in terms of four higher-order categories: social expression, social connectedness, extended mind, and relational AI. To investigate the future trajectories of automation practices, we use the concept of the possibility space, a fundamental theoretical idea from assemblage theory. Using our empirical approach, we translate this theoretical possibility space of automation assemblages into a data visualization to predict how existing practices can grow and new practices can emerge. Our new approach makes conceptual, methodological, and empirical contributions with implications for consumer research and marketing strategy.
Leisure is desirable and beneficial, yet consumers frequently forgo leisure in favor of other activities—namely, work. Why? We propose that goal conflict plays an important role. Seven experiments demonstrate that perceiving greater goal conflict shapes how consumers allocate time to work and leisure—even when those activities are unrelated to the conflicting goals. This occurs because goal conflict increases reliance on salient justifications, influencing how much time people spend on subsequent, unrelated activities. Because work tends to be easier to justify and leisure harder to justify, goal conflict increases time spent on work and decreases time spent on leisure. Thus, despite the conflicting goals being independent of the specific work and leisure activities considered (i.e., despite goal conflict being “incidental”), perceiving greater goal conflict encourages work and discourages leisure. The findings further understanding of how consumers allocate time to work and leisure, incidental effects of goal conflict on decision-making, and the role of justification in consumer choice. They also have implications for the use of “time-saving” technologies and the marketing of leisure activities.
Engagement in leisure offers a host of benefits for mental and physical health, yet many people view leisure as wasteful and unproductive. Four studies (n = 1310) demonstrate that believing leisure is wasteful undermines enjoyment of enacted leisure activities. Studies 1 and 2 document that people with a general tendency to find leisure wasteful report lower enjoyment of leisure activities on average, especially terminally-motivated leisure (performed as an end in itself) compared to instrumentally-motivated leisure (performed as a means to an end). The belief that leisure is wasteful is also associated with poorer mental health outcomes, including lower reported happiness, and greater reported depression, anxiety, and stress. Establishing causality, Studies 3 and 4 show that priming the belief that leisure is wasteful or unproductive reduces enjoyment of terminally-motivated leisure activities; unfortunately, priming the belief that leisure is productive does not increase enjoyment. We discuss implications for maximizing hedonic utility and well-being.
Monetary rewards are widely used in marketing practice to encourage referral behaviors and boost sales. To understand the effectiveness of monetary rewards in different contexts, this study examines how and why product image aesthetics moderate the relationship between monetary rewards and product sales in referral programs. The authors first analyzed a dataset obtained from a large e-commerce platform and calculated product image aesthetics using a computational approach. The results reveal that larger monetary rewards will lead to higher product sales in referral programs, and this effect will be attenuated or even reversed as product image aesthetics increase. Subsequently, the authors conducted a well-controlled laboratory experiment to replicate the documented effect and further validate extrinsic and intrinsic motivation as the underlying mechanisms. These findings extend the extant literature on referral programs by determining the importance of visual presentation of products and providing meaningful managerial implications.
This chapter examines the design for walking experiences by means of interactive sounds that arise and evolve along the walker’s activity process. Interactive sound is enabled by interactive systems that track the user’s activity and provide sonic feedback in real-time. The chapter’s focus is on how the experience of different walking aspects can be supported depending on decisions in design of interactive sound. The chapter starts by arguing that interactive systems can be designed to promote different aspects of the activity at hand. It then provides reasons for using sonic feedback in design for physical activities and explains the basic technical components to implement interactive sound. The chapter continues with analysis of design approaches that use interactive sound to support different walking aspects including: navigation, the exploration of the environment and optimization of body movement. This way interdependencies are elucidated between: the specific walking aspect that is supported, the walking setting, decisions on walking information tracked and sonic material used. The second part elaborates on GangKlang, a concept to design interactive sound with the aim to enhance walking experiences in daily life. Finally, challenges and opportunities of designing interactive sound for walking in everyday life are discussed.
A massive reduction in CO2 emissions is needed to reach the Paris climate goals on many societal levels - including individual consumer decisions. In contrast to resources as time or money, it is challenging to monitor one’s own impact on CO2 emissions. Designing digital assistants to provide users with information about their CO2 footprint could improve CO2 literacy (i.e., mental models), enabling individual behavioural change. We reviewed how characteristics of human bounded rationality (c.f. behavioural economics), such as temporal discounting, hamper effective interaction with CO2 as a resource. We examined user requirements for a carbon footprint tracker in an online study with 249 participants. Our study suggests CO2 tracking apps should encompass three types of functions: presentation of concrete CO2 emissions at a product or action level, direct comparisons between decision alternatives, and the proposal of better alternatives.
Individuals are increasingly using personal Internet of Things (IoT) devices that digitize their day-to-day lives. Those devices, however, often require substantial personal information to generate their intended benefits. For example, fitness technologies collect health, sleep, personal, and a vast array of other information ubiquitously, creating possible privacy issues for the users when fitness technology platform providers store or share their information, whether users know this or not. To explore the role of privacy perceptions in the context of continued use of fitness technologies, this study collected data from 212 fitness tracker users. We find empirical support for the importance of privacy perceptions in a user's intention to continue to use their fitness tracker. More specifically, consistent with privacy calculus research, privacy concern is negatively related to willingness to disclose information while perceived benefit is positively related to it. As an extension to calculus variables, users' expectations towards the data sharing practices of organizations also influences their willingness to disclose information. Importantly, willingness to disclose information has a direct effect on continued use intentions but also moderates the relationship between perceived benefit and users' intentions to continue using a fitness tracker. We discuss the implications of these findings for research and practice.
The term ‘Digital Phenotyping’ has started to appear with increasing regularity in medical research, especially within psychiatry. This aims to bring together digital traces (e.g., from smartphones), medical data (e.g., electronic health records), and lived experiences (e.g., daily activity, location, social contact), to better monitor, intervene, and diagnose various psychiatric conditions. However, is this notion any different from digital traces or the quantified self? While digital phenotyping has the potential to transform and revolutionize medicine as we know it; there are a number of challenges that must be addressed if research is to blossom. At present, these issues include; (1) methodological issues, for example, the lack of clear theoretical links between digital markers (e.g., battery life, interactions with smartphones) and condition relapses, (2) the current tools being employed, where they typically have a number of security or privacy issues, and are invasive by nature, (3) analytical methods and approaches, where I question whether research should start in larger-scale epidemiological scale or in smaller (and potentially highly vulnerable) patient populations as is the current norm, (4) the current lack of security and privacy regulation adherence of apps used, and finally, (5) how do such technologies become integrated into various healthcare systems? This aims to provide deep insight into how the Digital Phenotyping could provide huge promise if we critically reflect now and gather clinical insights with a number of other disciplines such as epidemiology, computer- and the social sciences to move forward.
Whether physical activity (PA) tracking devices are associated with PA motivation in young adults is largely unknown. We compared total PA minutes per week, total minutes walking/week, meeting moderate-to vigorous PA guidelines, and past-year activity tracking across motivation cluster profiles among 799 young adults. Participants with “self-determined” profiles reported the highest total PA minutes/week followed by participants with “low intrinsic,” “controlled self-determined,” and “high external” profiles. A behavior regulation profile X activity tracking frequency interaction was not significant. Behavior regulation profiles may need to be considered in PA interventions using activity trackers.
The field of mobile health (mHealth) focuses on the uses of mobile technologies to support the delivery of healthcare services and management of health in everyday life. mHealth tools range from clinical applications for remote patient monitoring and shared decision making to tools intended to help individuals better manage chronic conditions or make health-promoting lifestyle changes. In addition, mHealth tools leverage sensors, phone-based questionnaires, and activity inference to facilitate low-burden data collection in research, greatly enhancing our ability to understand how context, activity, and physiological processes interact to shape health and health behavior. This chapter traces the history of mHealth, highlights key features of these technologies that make them uniquely suited for delivery of health interventions, and overviews areas of health services and health promotion for which they are used. The chapter concludes with a brief discussion of ethical issues raised by the rapid growth of mHealth.
Conducted a field experiment with 3-5 yr old nursery school children to test the "overjustification" hypothesis suggested by self-perception theory (i.e., intrinsic interest in an activity may be decreased by inducing him to engage in that activity as an explicit means to some extrinsic goal). 51 Ss who showed intrinsic interest in a target activity during baseline observations were exposed to 1 of 3 conditions: in the expected-award condition, Ss agreed to engage in the target activity in order to obtain an extrinsic reward; in the unexpected-award condition, Ss had no knowledge of the reward until after they had finished with the activity; and in the no-award condition, Ss neither expected nor received the reward. Results support the prediction that Ss in the expected-award condition would show less subsequent intrinsic interest in the target activity than Ss in the other 2 conditions. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Do consumers eat more when they exercise more? If so, the implications could ripple through the multi-billion dollar fitness and food industries and have implications for both consumers and health-care providers. Three studies—two field experiments and one observational field study—triangulate on this potential compen-satory mechanism between physical activity and food intake. The findings showed that when physical activity was perceived as fun (e.g., when it is labeled as a scenic walk rather than an exercise walk), people subsequently consume less dessert at mealtime and consume fewer hedonic snacks. A final observational field study during a competitive race showed that the more fun people rated the race as being, the less likely they were to compensate with a hedonic snack afterwards. Engaging in a physical activity seems to trigger the search for reward when individuals perceive it as exercise but not when they perceive it as fun. Key implications for the fitness industry and for health-care profes-sionals are detailed along with the simple advice to consumers to make certain they make their physical activity routine fun in order to avoid compensation. When people begin exercise programs, they do not necessarily lose weight (Church et al. 2007). One reason may be because individuals reward themselves through
Although people often assume that multiple motives for doing something will be more powerful and effective than a single motive, research suggests that different types of motives for the same action sometimes compete. More specifically, research suggests that instrumental motives, which are extrinsic to the activities at hand, can weaken internal motives, which are intrinsic to the activities at hand. We tested whether holding both instrumental and internal motives yields negative outcomes in a field context in which various motives occur naturally and long-term educational and career outcomes are at stake. We assessed the impact of the motives of over 10,000 West Point cadets over the period of a decade on whether they would become commissioned officers, extend their officer service beyond the minimum required period, and be selected for early career promotions. For each outcome, motivation internal to military service itself predicted positive outcomes; a relationship that was negatively affected when instrumental motives were also in evidence. These results suggest that holding multiple motives damages persistence and performance in educational and occupational contexts over long periods of time.
This article investigates the consequence of the choice process for mental resources and the desire to obtain the selected products. The authors draw a distinction between instrumental choice, which serves preexisting consumption goals, and experiential choice, which serves as its own end. Across four studies, they find that instrumental choice undermines mental resources and experiential choice increases these resources. As a result, although experiential choice is made with no consumption goal in mind, compared with instrumental choice, it increases the desire to obtain the selected product. The authors demonstrate these effects on choice among a variety of consumer products (e.g., vacation packages, novels, flower bouquets).
This article examines a small-area hypothesis: individuals striving toward a goal end state exhibit greater motivation when their attention is directed to whichever is smaller in size—their accumulated or remaining progress. The result is that, at the beginning of goal pursuit, directing attention to accumulated progress increases goal adherence relative to directing attention to remaining progress (e.g., 20% completed is more impactful than 80% remaining). However, with closeness to the goal, directing attention to accumulated progress lessens goal adherence relative to directing attention to remaining progress (e.g., 20% remaining is more impactful than 80% completed; studies 1–2). The focus on small areas increases motivation by creating an illusion of fast progress (study 3). Therefore, when individuals wish to prolong goal pursuit and avoid reaching the goal’s end state, they slow down goal adherence when their attention is directed to small areas (study 4).
Marketers, educators, and caregivers often refer to instrumental benefits to convince
preschoolers to eat (e.g., “this food will make you strong”). We propose that preschoolers infer
that if food is instrumental to achieve a goal, it is less tasty, and therefore they consume less of it.
Accordingly, we find that preschoolers (3-5.5 years old) rated crackers as less tasty and
consumed fewer of them when the crackers were presented as instrumental to achieve a health
goal (studies 1-2). In addition, preschoolers consumed fewer carrots and crackers when these
were presented as instrumental to knowing how to read (study 3) and count (studies 4-5). This
research supports an inference account for the negative impact of certain persuasive messages on
consumption: preschoolers who are exposed to one association (e.g., between eating carrots and
intellectual performance) infer another association (e.g., between carrots and taste) must be
weaker.
We explore how attending to the goals an activity achieves (i.e., its instrumentality) impacts the motivation to pursue the activity. We propose that the focus on the activity’s instrumentality renders the activity more valuable yet its experience less positive. Because experience is mainly salient while pursuing (vs. planning) an activity, attending to the activity’s instrumentality increases the intention to pursue the activity but decreases how persistently individuals pursue it. We document this impact of attending to goals on increased intentions but decreased persistence on various activities, from a exercising on a treadmill (Study 1) and creating origami (Study 2) to dental flossing (Study 3) and practicing yoga (Study 4).
ABSTRACT This article examines,a silverlining of standing in line: Consumers,infer that products are more valuable when others are behind them. Specifically, we find that the value of a product increases as more people line up behind a person (study 1) or when others are present (vs. absent) behind a person in line (study 2). Value increases further by directing consumers’ attention to the presence of others behind them—that is, when they look backward versus forward (study 3) and when the queue structure emphasizes the last person to join versus the person being served (study 4). This effect of the people behind is associated with increased expenditure by queuing consumers,(study 5). Keywords: queue, standing in line, wait, value ,3
Consumers often have a variety of products that they may use to help them pursue their goals. These products constitute a set of means toward consumers’ goal attainment. This article investigates (1) how the amount of variety (high vs. low) among a set of means affects motivation to pursue the associated goal and (2) how this relationship changes over the course of goal pursuit as progress is made toward goal attainment. Five studies demonstrate that when progress toward goal attainment is low, having more variety within a set of means to goal attainment increases motivation to pursue the goal. However, when progress toward goal attainment is high, having less variety within a set of means to goal attainment increases motivation to pursue the goal. These findings suggest perceived variety among means is an important determinant of motivation in goal pursuit.
The goal-gradient hypothesis denotes the classic finding from behaviorism that animals expend more effort as they approach a reward. Building on this hypothesis, the authors generate new propositions for the human psychology of rewards. They test these propositions using field experiments, secondary customer data, paper-and-pencil problems, and Tobit and logit models. The key findings indicate that (1) participants in a real café reward program purchase coffee more frequently the closer they are to earning a free coffee; (2) Internet users who rate songs in return for reward certificates visit the rating Web site more often, rate more songs per visit, and persist longer in the rating effort as they approach the reward goal; (3) the illusion of progress toward the goal induces purchase acceleration (e.g., customers who receive a 12-stamp coffee card with 2 preexisting "bonus" stamps complete the 10 required purchases faster than customers who receive a "regular" 10-stamp card); and (4) a stronger tendency to accelerate toward the goal predicts greater retention and faster reengagement in the program. The conceptualization and empirical findings are captured by a parsimonious goal-distance model, in which effort investment is a function of the proportion of original distance remaining to the goal. In addition, using statistical and experimental controls, the authors rule out alternative explanations for the observed goal gradients. They discuss the theoretical significance of their findings and the managerial implications for incentive systems, promotions, and customer retention.
A medium-for example, points or money-is a token people receive as the immediate reward of their effort. It has no value in and of itself, but it can be traded for a desired outcome. Experiments demonstrate that, when people are faced with options entailing different outcomes, the presence of a medium can alter what option they choose. This effect occurs because the medium presents an illusion of advantage to an otherwise not so advantageous option, an illusion of certainty to an otherwise uncertain option, or an illusion of linearity to an otherwise concave effort-outcome return relationship. This work has implications for how points influence consumer choice and how money influences human behavior.
High productivity and high earning rates brought about by modern technologies make it possible for people to work less and enjoy more, yet many continue to work assiduously to earn more. Do people overearn-forgo leisure to work and earn beyond their needs? This question is understudied, partly because in real life, determining the right amount of earning and defining overearning are difficult. In this research, we introduced a minimalistic paradigm that allows researchers to study overearning in a controlled laboratory setting. Using this paradigm, we found that individuals do overearn, even at the cost of happiness, and that overearning is a result of mindless accumulation-a tendency to work and earn until feeling tired rather than until having enough. Supporting the mindless-accumulation notion, our results show, first, that individuals work about the same amount regardless of earning rates and hence are more likely to overearn when earning rates are high than when they are low, and second, that prompting individuals to consider the consequences of their earnings or denying them excessive earnings can disrupt mindless accumulation and enhance happiness.
80 preschool 4-5 yr olds participated in a novel activity in individual sessions. In the expected reward conditions, Ss expected to win a chance to play with highly attractive toys by engaging in the activity; in the unexpected reward conditions, Ss had no prior knowledge of this reward. Orthogonally, Ss in the surveillance conditions were told that their performance would be monitored via a TV camera; Ss in the nonsurveillance conditions were not monitored. 2 wks later, unobtrusive measures of the Ss' intrinsic interest in the activity were obtained in their classrooms. 2 significant main effects were obtained reproducing and expanding findings from earlier studies. Ss who had undertaken the activity expecting an extrinsic reward showed less subsequent interest in the activity than those who had not expected a reward, and Ss who had been placed under surveillance showed less subsequent interest than those not previously monitored. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The relationship of financial incentives to performance quality and quantity is cumulated over 39 studies containing 47 relationships. Financial incentives were not related to performance quality but had a corrected correlation of .34 with performance quantity. Setting (laboratory, field, experimental simulation) and theoretical framework moderated the relationship, but task type did not. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Whereas some studies have shown that contingently applied extrinsic rewards decrease intrinsic motivation created by an interesting task, an equal number of studies have failed to support this phenomenon, known as the overjustification effect. 20 research studies, published 1971–1988 in work and organizational psychology journals, were categorized according to whether intrinsic motivation had been measured via free-time or task performance measures. Results of a meta-analysis, testing for a moderator effect, show that support for the overjustification effect occurs only when intrinsic motivation is operationalized as task behavior during a free-time measure. In contrast, task performance measures indicate that the effects of intrinsic and extrinsic rewards on motivation are additive. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Conducted 2 laboratory and 1 field experiment with 24, 24, and 8 undergraduates to investigate the effects of external rewards on intrinsic motivation to perform an activity. In each experiment, Ss performed an activity during 3 different periods, and observations relevant to their motivation were made. External rewards were given to the experimental Ss during the 2nd period only, while the control Ss received no rewards. Results indicate that (a) when money was used as an external reward, intrinsic motivation tended to decrease; whereas (b) when verbal reinforcement and positive feedback were used, intrinsic motivation tended to increase. Discrepant findings in the literature are reconciled using a new theoretical framework which employs a cognitive approach and concentrates on the nature of the external reward. (26 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Agency theory highlights losses in productivity that may occur when the interests of owners and employees are imperfectly aligned. Pay for performance has been proposed as a solution to this problem. Using a real-effort laboratory experiment with salient incentives, we compared pay-for-performance and fixed-salary compensation. The former achieved significantly higher firm productivity through both sorting and incentive effects. In particular, more productive employees selected pay for performance, and employees on average, regardless of their preferred compensation scheme, produced more under it. However, more risk-averse individuals were less likely to select pay for performance and less responsive to its incentives.
Experiences generally provide less pleasure as we repeat them---they satiate. Although satiation lowers consumer welfare and limits the consumption of a marketer's product, researchers have identified few techniques to reduce satiation. This paper proposes that satiation depends on perceptions of repetition within a particular category of experiences. By subcategorizing episodes, people can slow the decline in enjoyment from additional consumption. Subcategorization focuses people's attention on aspects that differentiate the episodes, making generally similar episodes seem less repetitive and consequently less satiating. Four studies demonstrate this specificity effect for measures of concurrent and retrospective evaluations of enjoyment, the desire to continue a repeated experience, and predicted satiation.
This article contains two conceptual replications of an experiment designed to test the hypothesis that when monetary payments are inherent to the task's content their presence (vs. absence) increases intrinsic motivation, whereas when they constitute the task's exogenous consequence their presence (vs. absence) decreases intrinsic motivation toward the task. The data of both experiments strongly supported the research hypothesis. The findings were interpreted as consistent with the assumption that intrinsic motivation ensues whenever the actor causally attributes his performance of the task to the task's content and inconsistent with the proposal that intrinsic motivation be identified with internal (or self-) attributions and extrinsic motivation with attributions to the external environment.
Intrinsic and extrinsic types of motivation have been widely studied, and the distinction between them has shed important light on both developmental and educational practices. In this review we revisit the classic definitions of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in light of contemporary research and theory. Intrinsic motivation remains an important construct, reflecting the natural human propensity to learn and assimilate. However, extrinsic motivation is argued to vary considerably in its relative autonomy and thus can either reflect external control or true self-regulation. The relations of both classes of motives to basic human needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness are discussed.
In a series of studies in which consumers assembled IKEA boxes, folded origami, and built sets of Legos, we demonstrate and investigate the boundary conditions for what we term the “IKEA effect” – the increase in valuation of self-made products. Participants saw their amateurish creations – of both utilitarian and hedonic products – as similar in value to the creations of experts, and expected others to share their opinions. Our account suggests that labor leads to increased valuation only when labor results in successful completion of tasks; thus when participants built and then destroyed their creations, or failed to complete them, the IKEA effect dissipated. Finally, we show that labor increases valuation of completed products not just for consumers who profess an interest in “do-it-yourself” projects, but even for those who are relatively uninterested. We discuss the implications of the IKEA effect for marketing managers and organizations more generally.
This Viewpoint discusses issues that prevent wearable medical devices from effectively bridging the gap between recording information and changing health-related behavior.
Several large technology companies including Apple, Google, and Samsung are entering the expanding market of population health with the introduction of wearable devices. This technology, worn in clothing or accessories, is part of a larger movement often referred to as the “quantified self.” The notion is that by recording and reporting information about behaviors such as physical activity or sleep patterns, these devices can educate and motivate individuals toward better habits and better health. The gap between recording information and changing behavior is substantial, however, and while these devices are increasing in popularity, little evidence suggests that they are bridging that gap.
This research demonstrates that as people approach a goal, external representations, which increase the ease of visualizing the goal, enhance goal pursuit. Specifically, consumers judge easy-to-visualize goals to be closer than difficult-to-visualize goals, which in turn increases effort and commitment. Ease of visualization affects performance in swimming competitions and the physical effort exerted in the lab. Visualization also affects commitment toward savings, willingness to wait for service, and performance in a simulated sales task. Importantly, the beneficial effects of visualization exist only when people are close to the goal. In addition, the effect of visualization attenuates when the goal is split into subgoals. Managers can use these results to enhance consumer goal pursuit, influence consumer satisfaction in online service encounters, and motivate employees to improve performance. In these varied contexts, visual representations of goal progress (e.g., progress bars) enhance motivation as people approach their goal.
Advances in mobile computing offer the potential to change when, where, and how health interventions are delivered. Rather than relying on occasional in-clinic interactions, mobile health (mHealth) interventions may overcome constraints due to limited clinician time, poor patient adherence, and inability to provide meaningful interventions at the most appropriate time. Technological capability, however, does not equate with user acceptance and adoption. How then can we ensure that mobile technologies for behavior change meet the needs of their target audience? In this paper, we argue that overcoming acceptance and adoption barriers requires interdisciplinary collaborations, bringing together not only technologists and health researchers but also human-computer interaction (HCI) experts. We discuss the value of human-computer interaction research to the nascent field of mHealth and demonstrate how research from HCI can offer complementary insights on the creation of mobile health interventions. We conclude with a discussion of barriers to interdisciplinary collaborations in mobile health and suggest ways to overcome them.
We show that counting downward while performing a task shortens the perceived duration of the task compared to counting upward. People perceive that less time has elapsed when they were counting downward versus upward while using a product (Studies 1 and 3) or watching geometrical shapes (Study 2). The counting direction effect is obtained using both prospective and retrospective time judgments (Study 3), but only when the count range begins with the number “1” (Study 2). Furthermore, the counting direction affects peoples' attitude toward the product, their likelihood of using it again, and their purchase intentions. We test several plausible accounts for the counting direction effect, including task difficulty, numerical anchoring, and arousal. We find preliminary evidence that downward counting feels shorter because it is more arousing than upward counting.
In four studies in which consumers assembled IKEA boxes, folded origami, and built sets of Legos, we demonstrate and investigate boundary conditions for the IKEA effect—the increase in valuation of self-made products. Participants saw their amateurish creations as similar in value to experts' creations, and expected others to share their opinions. We show that labor leads to love only when labor results in successful completion of tasks; when participants built and then destroyed their creations, or failed to complete them, the IKEA effect dissipated. Finally, we show that labor increases valuation for both “do-it-yourselfers” and novices.
Expectancy theory and reinforcement theory of task motivation have assumed that the effect of extrinsic and intrinsic reinforcement are additive in nature. , , and has recently presented tentative evidence that reportedly shows that contingent monetary rewards actually reduced intrinsic task motivation. This paper reexamines the evidence presented by Deci and then tests his cognitive evaluation theory explanation in both a boring and nonboring task setting. The evidence presented here along with a reexamination of Deci's previous findings indicate that contingent monetary payments that are not delayed have an additive effect with intrinsic rewards on task motivation. The results were discussed in relation to their implication to management.
This experiment involved elementary school students in a series of team competitions. In one half of the winning teams (comprising the PRIZE condition), the members received attractive prizes as tokens of their victory, though no promise of prizes had been made initially. In the remaining half of the winning teams (the NO-PRIZE condition) no prizes were distributed. As expected, Ss in PRIZE (vs the NO-PRIZE) condition tended to misattribute causality for having participated in the games to the prizes and consequently reproted less enjoyment of the games as such. Contrary to hypothesis, these tendencies did not amplify with time elapsing from the introduction of the prizes.
External interventions have a significant and systematic effect on preferences: Under specific conditions they crowd an individual's intrinsic motivation in or out. Rewards given or regulations applied by a principle are more likely to crowd out an agent's inner preference for a certain task. The more personal the relation between the two actors is, the more interesting the agent finds the task and the more extensive an agent's participation possibilities are. Empirical evidence supports the claim that, in many cases, agents, indeed, react to an external motivation by reducing their effort to fulfill a certain duty. This points to new limits of pricing as well as regulating, even though the price mechanism does not destroy intrinsic motivation to the same extent because it is less restrictive than regulation.
Examined the self-perception explanations of the overjustification effect and their underlying assumptions about cognitive structures based on the operation of multiple-sufficient-causal schemata (MSCS). Two studies were carried out that initially identified the Ss as belonging to the additive, transitional, or discounting stage of MSCS according to the procedure of M. C. Smith (see record
1974-22388-001). A total of 94 5-, 8-, and 11-yr-old schoolchildren were selected as Ss. Half of the Ss were given a tangible reward for an interesting task in the usual overjustification paradigm. The results of both studies indicate that the rewarded groups showed a decline in intrinsic interest that was independent of the Ss' level of functioning on the schema. The author examines objections to the present research strategy and assesses the educational implications of the outcomes. (39 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Describes a theoretical framework whereby the action's endogenous attribution is linked with the inferences of intrinsic motivation, subjective freedom, and the action's underlying intention. The endogenous-exogenous distinction is proposed to replace the frequently invoked partition between the action's internal and external causes. Both conceptual and empirical considerations are put forth in favor of such a replacement. Classical attribution topics to which the internal-external partition has been applied are reinterpreted in terms of the endogenous-exogenous distinction, and novel data are reported that support the latter framework. Finally, several categories of conditions for endogenous (or exogenous) attributions are identified, and possible directions of further research within the endogenous-exogenous framework are suggested. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
what determines people's motivational responses when they are engaging an input / how do people's affective and inferential responses when they are engaging an input influence their subsequent orientation toward that input
address these issues more broadly by considering the role of activity engagement in motivation generally and in intrinsic-extrinsic motivation in particular
our model of activity engagement proposes that people's input orientations are more fluid and more numerous than traditional intrinsic-extrinsic distinctions have suggested / given the history of the issues to be addressed, however, classic distinctions between instrinsic and extrinsic motivation provide the initial framework for our discussion
previous theories of social motivation have taken two basic approaches to distinguishing intrinsic from extrinsic motivation: (1) distinguishing types of needs or incentives for engaging in an activity; and (2) distinguishing types of inferences about one's engagement in an activity / briefly consider each of these two approaches (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Presents 2 conceptual replications of an experiment designed to test the hypothesis that when monetary payments are inherent to the task's content their presence (vs absence) increases intrinsic motivation, whereas when they constitute the task's exogenous consequence their presence (vs absence) decreases intrinsic motivation toward the task. Ss were a total of 128 male 14-16 yr olds. Data of both experiments strongly support the hypothesis. The findings are consistent with the assumption that intrinsic motivation ensues whenever the actor causally attributes his performance of the task to the task's content and are inconsistent with the proposal that intrinsic motivation be identified with internal (or self-) attributions and extrinsic motivation with attributions to the external environment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
A laboratory study examined the effects of task design and reward contingency upon task performance and satisfaction and upon behavioral and attributional measures of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation were defined by the task content-task consequence distinction. Both the task design and reward contingency factors were found to yield significant multivariate F ratios, but their interaction was not significant. Subjects in the contingent pay condition had higher performance quantity than those in the noncontingent condition. Subjects in the enriched task condition produced higher quality units than those in the nonenriched condition. Both contingent pay and enriched task conditons yielded higher task satisfaction and increased attributions of performance to intrinsic factors. Results were discussed in terms of cognitive evaluation theory and the distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.
Our memories define who we are and what we do. Aside from a few preferences hardwired by evolution, they also define what we like and how we choose. In this chapter, we argue that our view of preference changes if conceptualized explicitly as the product of memory representations and memory processes. We draw on insights about the functions and operations of memory provided by cognitive psychology and social cognition to show that memory plays a crucial role in preference and choice. We examine memory processes in preference and choice at a more "micro" and process-oriented level than previous investigations into the role of memory processes, but at a level that is cognitive and functional, rather than computational. We suggest that a consideration of properties of memory representation and retrieval may provide a unifying explanatory framework for some seemingly disparate preference phenomena.
Thirty two subjects of high school age were tested under two experimental conditions on a variety of tasks. Subjects in the extrinsic-incentive condition were promised a reward for their participation in the experiment No mention of reward was made in the no-incentive condition. Consistent with die experimental hypothesis, it was found that subjects in the latter as opposed to the former condition exhibited superiority in creativity of performance and task recall. In addition, they manifested a stronger Zeigarnik effect, and reported greater enjoyment of the experiment The data were discussed in reference to the idea that the degree of intrinsic motivation for a task is determined by the actor's self-attributed cause for its performance
This research examines why consumers desire unusual and novel consumption experiences and voluntarily choose leisure activities, vacations, and celebrations that are predicted to be less pleasurable. For example, consumers sometimes choose to stay at freezing ice hotels and to eat at restaurants serving peculiar foods, such as bacon ice cream. We propose that such choices are driven by consumers' continual striving to use time productively, make progress, and reach accomplishments (i.e., a productivity orientation). We argue that choices of collectable (unusual, novel, extreme) experiences lead consumers to feel productive even when they are engaging in leisure activities as they “check off” items on an “experiential check list” and build their “experiential CV.” A series of laboratory and field studies shows that the consumption of collectable experiences is driven and intensified by a (chronic or situational) productivity orientation.
Volitional behaviors can be construed as “work” (extrinsically motivated) or as “fun” (intrinsically motivated). When volitional behaviors are construed as an obligation to work, completing the behavior depletes a consumer, and subsequent self-control becomes more difficult. When volitional behaviors are construed as an opportunity to have fun, completing the behavior vitalizes a consumer, and subsequent self-control becomes easier. Six studies show how individual differences and contextual factors influence the construal of a task, the motivation for completing it, and subsequent regulatory behavior.