Exercising with Axelroad is fun, and research shows that gamification works!
2024
A field experiment on gamification of physical activity – Effects on motivation and steps
Elaine Marie Grech, Marie Briguglio, Emanuel Said
The use of gamification resulted in stronger behavioral outcomes relative to the control group despite the lack of psychological effects.
2023
Positive and Negative Impacts of Gamification on the Fitness Industry
Fezile Ozdamli and Fulbert Milrich
Results have indicated that gamification strategy is a supporting factor to overcome the difficulties of executing exercises. Also, to improve the willingness towards fitness regimens.
2023
On or Off Track: How (Broken) Streaks Affect Consumer Decisions
Jackie Silverman, Alixandra Barasch
New technologies increasingly enable consumers to track their behaviors over time, making them more aware of their “streaks”—behaviors performed consecutively three or more times—than ever before.
2023
What can machine learning teach us about habit formation? Evidence from exercise and hygiene
Anastasia Buyalskaya, Hung Ho, Katherine L. Milkman, Xiaomin li, Angela L. Dusckworth, and Colin Camerer
Gymgoers who are more predictable are less responsive to an intervention designed to promote more gym attendance, consistent with past experiments showing that habit formation generates insensitivity to reward devaluation.
2021
Combining a lottery incentive with protection against losing the lottery improves exercise adherence
Daniella Meeker, Tara Knight, Patra Childress, Elmar R. Aliyev, & Jason N. Doctor
The loss-protection framing resulted in greater exercise class attendance, suggesting that the approach could enhance the outcomes of reward-based programs without increasing program costs.
2019
Gamification Use and Design in Popular Health and Fitness Mobile Applications
Victor Cotton, Mitesh S. Patel
Gamification was commonly used by popular health and fitness mobile applications, but none used the specified behavioral economic principles to design rewards or points. Mobile applications could potentially improve their use if their design better leveraged principles from behavioral economics.
2017
Can financial incentives help people trying to establish new habits? Experimental evidence with new gym members
Mariana Carrera, Heather Royer, Mark Stehr, Justin Sydnor
We document substantial overconfidence among new members about their likely visit rates and discuss how overconfidence may undermine the effectiveness of a modest incentive program.
2014
The Fresh Start Effect: Temporal Landmarks Motivate Aspirational Behavior
Hengchen Dai, Katherine L. Milkman, Jason Riis
We propose that temporal landmarks demarcate the passage of time, creating many new mental accounting periods each year, which relegate past imperfections to a previous period, induce people to take a big-picture view of their lives, and thus motivate aspirational behaviors.
2012
Making health habitual: the psychology of ‘habit-formation’ and general practice
Benjamin Gardner, Phillippa Lally, Jane Wardle
Habit-formation advice can be delivered briefly, and it has realistic potential for long-term impact. A sample tool for health professionals to use with patients to encourage habit formation is provided
2011
Promoting habit formation
Phillippa Lally, Benjamin Gardner
This review aims to provide intervention developers with tools to help establish target behaviours as habits, based on theoretical and empirical insights. We discuss evidence-based techniques for forming new healthy habits and breaking existing unhealthy habits.
2009
The habitual consumer
Wendy Wood, David T. Neal
Habits are learned largely as people pursue goals in daily life, and habits are broken through the strategic deployment of effortful self-control.