From Virtual Trees to Real Forests: The Impact of Gamification Affordances on Green Consumption Behaviors in Ant Forest

Gamification, an outcome of technological advancement, serves as a promising environmental communication strategy to promote green behavior. However, little is known regarding the key affordances which attract users, or of the potential mechanism of gamification affordances on green consumption behaviors. Focusing on the gamification paradigm, this study sheds light upon this topic by constructing a serial mediation model to explore the impacts of gamification affordances on green consumption behaviors, as well as the serial mediating role of value perceptions (i.e. hedonic, utilitarian, social) and environmental concerns. This study employed a dual-stage design comprising the qualitative method via text-coding analysis using 18,069 comment postings, and the quantitative method via an online survey in China with 486 respondents to validate the model using the example of Ant Forest. Results indicate that gamification affordances positively affect users’ value perceptions, which in turn promote environmental concerns. Moreover, value perceptions and environmental concerns are shown to serially mediate the link between gamification affordances and green consumption behaviors. These findings help advance knowledge in the domain of gamification and environmental communication, and provide practical suggestions as to how to better communicate with users on environmental issues.