Gamified Challenges in Online Weight-Loss Communities
Gamified challenges, one of the most popular features of online weight-loss communities, enable users to set weight-loss goals and compete with other challenge participants via leaderboards. In this paper, using the data from a leading online weight-loss community, we study the effect of gamified challenges on weight-loss outcome. We employ a dynamic model, using a system generalized method of moments estimator combined with an inverse probability weighting approach, to address endogeneity issues. Our findings indicate that participation in gamified challenges has a positive and significant effect on weight loss. We found that, on average, the participants achieved a weight loss of 0.945 kg by participating in at least one challenge a month. We demonstrate that not all gamified challenges are equally effective; effective challenges do not include a numeric weight-loss target, focus on exercise-only instructions, and have a large active group size. The results also show interaction effects between challenge goal characteristics and challenge size. We discuss the potential underlying mechanisms, using goal-setting theory and the prior findings on competition dynamics. Our findings have implications for designing gamified challenges in the online weight-loss communities and can serve as a guide for designing gamified information systems in goal-setting environments
Year of publication: |
2020
|
---|---|
Authors: | Bojd, Behnaz |
Other Persons: | Song, Xiaolong (contributor) ; Tan, Yong (contributor) ; Yan, Xiangbin (contributor) |
Publisher: |
[2020]: [S.l.] : SSRN |
Saved in:
freely available
Extent: | 1 Online-Ressource (54 p) |
---|---|
Type of publication: | Book / Working Paper |
Language: | English |
Notes: | Nach Informationen von SSRN wurde die ursprüngliche Fassung des Dokuments April 5, 2018 erstellt |
Other identifiers: | 10.2139/ssrn.3157331 [DOI] |
Source: | ECONIS - Online Catalogue of the ZBW |
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012852535
Saved in favorites
Similar items by person
-
Gamified challenges in online weight-loss communities
Bojd, Behnaz, (2022)
-
Shared Minds: How Patients Use Collaborative Information Sharing via Social Media Platforms
Yan, Lu Lucy, (2018)
-
Investor Platform Choice : Herding, Platform Attributes, and Regulations
Jiang, Yang, (2018)
- More ...