How mobile app design impacts user responses to mixed self-tracking outcomes: Randomized online experiment to explore the role of spatial distance for hedonic editing

Publikation: Beiträge in ZeitschriftenZeitschriftenaufsätzeForschungbegutachtet

Authors

Background: Goal setting is among the most common behavioral change techniques employed in contemporary self-tracking apps. For these techniques to be effective, it is relevant to understand how the visual presentation of goal-related outcomes employed in the app design affects users’ responses to their self-tracking outcomes. Objective: This study examined whether a spatially close (vs distant) presentation of mixed positive and negative self-tracking outcomes from multiple domains (ie, activity, diet) on a digital device’s screen can provide users the opportunity to hedonically edit their self-tracking outcome profile (ie, to view their mixed self-tracking outcomes in the most positive light). Further, this study examined how the opportunity to hedonically edit one’s self-tracking outcome profile relates to users’ future health behavior intentions. Methods: To assess users’ responses to a spatially close (vs distant) presentation of a mixed-gain (vs mixed-loss) self-tracking outcome profile, a randomized 2×2 between-subjects online experiment with a final sample of 397 participants (mean age 27.4, SD 7.2 years; 71.5%, 284/397 female) was conducted in Germany. The experiment started with a cover story about a fictitious self-tracking app. Thereafter, participants saw one of four manipulated self-tracking outcome profiles. Variables of interest measured were health behavior intentions, compensatory health beliefs, health motivation, and recall of the outcome profile. We analyzed data using chi-square tests (SPSS version 23) and moderated mediation analyses with the PROCESS macro 2.16.1. Results: Spatial distance facilitated hedonic editing, which was indicated by systematic memory biases in users’ recall of positive and negative self-tracking outcomes. In the case of a mixed-gain outcome profile, a spatially close (vs distant) presentation tended to increase the underestimation of the negative outcome (P=.06). In the case of a mixed-loss outcome profile, a spatially distant (vs close) presentation facilitated the exact recognition of the positive outcome (P=.04). When the presentation of self-tracking outcomes provided the opportunity for hedonic editing, users with a low (vs high) health motivation produced compensatory health beliefs, which led to lower health behavior intentions (index of moderated mediation=0.0352, 95% CI 0.0011-0.0923). Conclusions: When spatial distance between the presentations of mixed self-tracking outcomes provided the opportunity to hedonically edit one’s self-tracking outcome profile, users recalled their self-tracking outcomes in a more positive light. Especially for users with lower health motivation, the opportunity to hedonically edit one’s mixed self-tracking outcome profile led to reduced health behavior intentions. To prevent the occurrence of hedonic editing in users’ responses to visually presented self-tracking outcome profiles, further research is necessary to determine the ideal distance that should be employed in the app design for the presentation of mixed self-tracking outcomes on a digital device’s screen.

OriginalspracheEnglisch
Aufsatznummere81
ZeitschriftJMIR mHealth and uHealth
Jahrgang6
Ausgabenummer4
Anzahl der Seiten13
ISSN2291-5222
DOIs
PublikationsstatusErschienen - 11.04.2018
Extern publiziertJa

Bibliographische Notiz

Publisher Copyright:
© Monika Imschloss, Jana Lorenz.

DOI

Zuletzt angesehen

Aktivitäten

  1. Authenticity in modelling test items
  2. How problems of contemporary science communication concepts become visible in new public genres like the science slam?
  3. Towards decent platform work
  4. Make academia meaningful again: A conversation on research, cocreation and impact
  5. Automatic Detection and Classification of State Heads and Common People?
  6. 'Foundations and Futures' 2010
  7. Knowledge Space(s) of Globalization – Musealizing Things, People and Spaces of Global Trade
  8. ECPR Joint Sessions of Workshops 2009
  9. Carbon Dioxide Treatment, Summary and Presentation of the Final Version of the Computerprogram CO2
  10. Workshop Medzin I
  11. Control and Freedom: On Interactivity as a Software effect
  12. Organizing temporary co-presence to induce and cope with uncertainty in creative processes
  13. How can corporate social responsibility (CSR) gain relevance in internal communication? A network perspective on communication processes
  14. It’s all about engagement with texts – Empirical findings about promoting students’ reading comprehension by well-structured texts
  15. Comparative Perspectives on Social Values and Modernization - 2011
  16. Strange Signs: Invented Languages from Alienation to Zany
  17. Ars Electronica
  18. Life cycle thinking and systems thinking - how to support systems thinking in material flow management
  19. Hyperkult XXV - 2015
  20. International Conference of Mathematical Modelling and Applications - ICTMA 17
  21. C- and Si-analogous compounds – comparison of their behaviour in a test for ready biodegradability

Publikationen

  1. Hedge Detection Using the RelHunter Approach
  2. 8th challenge on question answering over linked data (QALD-8)
  3. Extending talk on a prescribed discussion topic in a learner-native speaker eTandem learning task
  4. Differences in the sophistication of Value-based Management
  5. Eulerian and Lagrangian perspectives on turbulent superstructures in Rayleigh-Bénard convection
  6. Processing of CSR communication: insights from the ELM
  7. Diversity: Konzept. Programmatik. Praxis.
  8. On the distinctiveness of tags in collaborative tagging systems
  9. Participatory energy scenario development as dramatic scripting
  10. ZooKeys, unlocking Earth's incredible biodiversity and building a sustainable bridge into the public domain: From "print-based" to "web-based" taxonomy, systematics, and natural history ZooKeys Editorial Opening Paper
  11. Multi-Professional Support
  12. Conceptions of problem solving mathematics teaching
  13. Analytic reproducibility in articles receiving open data badges at the journal Psychological Science
  14. Foreword to applied data science, demo, and nectar tracks
  15. An empirically grounded ontology for analyzing IT-based interventions in business ecosystems
  16. Paired case research design and mixed-methods approach
  17. How do controls and trust interact?
  18. Integration of laboratory experiments into introductory electrical engineering courses
  19. Learning from partially annotated sequences
  20. Influence of three different unstable shoe constructions on EMG-activity during treadmill walking
  21. Toward a lifespan metric of reading fluency
  22. Machine Learning Applications
  23. Differentiating forest types using TerraSAR–X spotlight images based on inferential statistics and multivariate analysis
  24. Modern Baselines for SPARQL Semantic Parsing
  25. RAWSim-O: A Simulation Framework for Robotic Mobile Fulfillment Systems
  26. Bifactor Models for Predicting Criteria by General and Specific Factors
  27. Nonlinear analyses of self-paced reading