Perceived Persuasive Effect Of Behavior Model Design In Fitness Apps

Behavior modeling has become a very important behavior change technique employed in most fitness apps. However, its effect as a persuasive strategy on users has not been well investigated. Consequently, we conducted an empirical study among 669 participants to uncover: (1) how the perceived persuasiveness of behavior model design influences three social cognitive theory (SCT) determinants of behavior: self-efficacy, self-regulation and outcome expectation; and (2) the moderating effect of gender-based personalization. We based our study on user evaluation of prototypes of behavior models performing push-up and squat exercise behaviors as a case study. Our results show that, overall, the perceived persuasiveness of behavior models significantly influences all of the three SCT factors. The effect of persuasiveness on self-regulation (beta = 0.42, p < 0.001) and outcome expectation (beta = 0.41, p < 0.001) is stronger than on self-efficacy (beta = 0.13, p < 0.05). Moreover, the behavior model design has a stronger effect on females' self-efficacy and males' outcome expectation if personalized to their gender. We discuss the implication of our findings.