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Selection of and Response to Physical Activity–Based Social Comparisons in a Digital Environment: Series of Daily Assessment Studies

BACKGROUND: Innovative approaches are needed to understand barriers to and facilitators of physical activity among insufficiently active adults. Although social comparison processes (ie, self-evaluations relative to others) are often used to motivate physical activity in digital environments, user p...

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Autores principales: Arigo, Danielle, Gray, Robert C, Dallal, Diane H, Villareale, Jennifer, Zhu, Jichen
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: JMIR Publications 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10012003/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36848204
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/41239
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author Arigo, Danielle
Gray, Robert C
Dallal, Diane H
Villareale, Jennifer
Zhu, Jichen
author_facet Arigo, Danielle
Gray, Robert C
Dallal, Diane H
Villareale, Jennifer
Zhu, Jichen
author_sort Arigo, Danielle
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Innovative approaches are needed to understand barriers to and facilitators of physical activity among insufficiently active adults. Although social comparison processes (ie, self-evaluations relative to others) are often used to motivate physical activity in digital environments, user preferences and responses to comparison information are poorly understood. OBJECTIVE: We used an iterative approach to better understand users’ selection of comparison targets, how they interacted with their selected targets, and how they responded to these targets. METHODS: Across 3 studies, different samples of insufficiently active college students used the Fitbit system (Fitbit LLC) to track their steps per day as well as a separate, adaptive web platform each day for 7 to 9 days (N=112). The adaptive platform was designed with different layouts for each study; each allowed participants to select their preferred comparison target from various sets of options, view the desired amount of information about their selected target, and rate their physical activity motivation before and after viewing information about their selected target. Targets were presented as achieving physical activity at various levels below and above their own, which were accessed via the Fitbit system each day. We examined the types of comparison target selections, time spent viewing and number of elements viewed for each type of target, and day-level associations between comparison selections and physical activity outcomes (motivation and behavior). RESULTS: Study 1 (n=5) demonstrated that the new web platform could be used as intended and that participants’ interactions with the platform (ie, the type of target selected, the time spent viewing the selected target’s profile, and the number of profile elements viewed) varied across the days. Studies 2 (n=53) and 3 (n=54) replicated these findings; in both studies, age was positively associated with time spent viewing the selected target’s profile and the number of profile elements viewed. Across all studies, upward targets (who had more steps per day than the participant) were selected more often than downward targets (who had fewer steps per day than the participant), although only a subset of either type of target selection was associated with benefits for physical activity motivation or behavior. CONCLUSIONS: Capturing physical activity–based social comparison preferences is feasible in an adaptive digital environment, and day-to-day differences in preferences for social comparison targets are associated with day-to-day changes in physical activity motivation and behavior. Findings show that participants only sometimes focus on the comparison opportunities that support their physical activity motivation or behavior, which helps explain previous, equivocal findings regarding the benefits of physical activity–based comparisons. Additional investigation of day-level determinants of comparison selections and responses is needed to fully understand how best to harness comparison processes in digital tools to promote physical activity.
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spelling pubmed-100120032023-03-15 Selection of and Response to Physical Activity–Based Social Comparisons in a Digital Environment: Series of Daily Assessment Studies Arigo, Danielle Gray, Robert C Dallal, Diane H Villareale, Jennifer Zhu, Jichen JMIR Hum Factors Original Paper BACKGROUND: Innovative approaches are needed to understand barriers to and facilitators of physical activity among insufficiently active adults. Although social comparison processes (ie, self-evaluations relative to others) are often used to motivate physical activity in digital environments, user preferences and responses to comparison information are poorly understood. OBJECTIVE: We used an iterative approach to better understand users’ selection of comparison targets, how they interacted with their selected targets, and how they responded to these targets. METHODS: Across 3 studies, different samples of insufficiently active college students used the Fitbit system (Fitbit LLC) to track their steps per day as well as a separate, adaptive web platform each day for 7 to 9 days (N=112). The adaptive platform was designed with different layouts for each study; each allowed participants to select their preferred comparison target from various sets of options, view the desired amount of information about their selected target, and rate their physical activity motivation before and after viewing information about their selected target. Targets were presented as achieving physical activity at various levels below and above their own, which were accessed via the Fitbit system each day. We examined the types of comparison target selections, time spent viewing and number of elements viewed for each type of target, and day-level associations between comparison selections and physical activity outcomes (motivation and behavior). RESULTS: Study 1 (n=5) demonstrated that the new web platform could be used as intended and that participants’ interactions with the platform (ie, the type of target selected, the time spent viewing the selected target’s profile, and the number of profile elements viewed) varied across the days. Studies 2 (n=53) and 3 (n=54) replicated these findings; in both studies, age was positively associated with time spent viewing the selected target’s profile and the number of profile elements viewed. Across all studies, upward targets (who had more steps per day than the participant) were selected more often than downward targets (who had fewer steps per day than the participant), although only a subset of either type of target selection was associated with benefits for physical activity motivation or behavior. CONCLUSIONS: Capturing physical activity–based social comparison preferences is feasible in an adaptive digital environment, and day-to-day differences in preferences for social comparison targets are associated with day-to-day changes in physical activity motivation and behavior. Findings show that participants only sometimes focus on the comparison opportunities that support their physical activity motivation or behavior, which helps explain previous, equivocal findings regarding the benefits of physical activity–based comparisons. Additional investigation of day-level determinants of comparison selections and responses is needed to fully understand how best to harness comparison processes in digital tools to promote physical activity. JMIR Publications 2023-02-27 /pmc/articles/PMC10012003/ /pubmed/36848204 http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/41239 Text en ©Danielle Arigo, Robert C Gray, Diane H Dallal, Jennifer Villareale, Jichen Zhu. Originally published in JMIR Human Factors (https://humanfactors.jmir.org), 27.02.2023. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in JMIR Human Factors, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on https://humanfactors.jmir.org, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.
spellingShingle Original Paper
Arigo, Danielle
Gray, Robert C
Dallal, Diane H
Villareale, Jennifer
Zhu, Jichen
Selection of and Response to Physical Activity–Based Social Comparisons in a Digital Environment: Series of Daily Assessment Studies
title Selection of and Response to Physical Activity–Based Social Comparisons in a Digital Environment: Series of Daily Assessment Studies
title_full Selection of and Response to Physical Activity–Based Social Comparisons in a Digital Environment: Series of Daily Assessment Studies
title_fullStr Selection of and Response to Physical Activity–Based Social Comparisons in a Digital Environment: Series of Daily Assessment Studies
title_full_unstemmed Selection of and Response to Physical Activity–Based Social Comparisons in a Digital Environment: Series of Daily Assessment Studies
title_short Selection of and Response to Physical Activity–Based Social Comparisons in a Digital Environment: Series of Daily Assessment Studies
title_sort selection of and response to physical activity–based social comparisons in a digital environment: series of daily assessment studies
topic Original Paper
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10012003/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36848204
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/41239
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