The Dark Side of Positive Social Influence

Social influence in the form of social norms has been widely used to transform behaviors, and is argued to be especially efficacious in the context of health related activities. However, can such externally induced compliance produce negative outcomes? When individuals feel compelled to conform to the behavior of the majority, does it lead to an unexpected backfire effect? We conducted a randomized field experiment of more than 10,000 individuals for a two-month period on an online physical activity community to examine if there is a dark side to social influence. We studied the effect of social norms on users’ goal setting and goal achievement behavior. While social influence increases the rate of goal setting, strikingly, we also observe a dark side to social influence in that such influence yields lower rates of goal achievement. Our findings have important implications for the design of interventions in the context of mHealth technologies

From Dark Patterns to Digital Sludging – Mapping the Ethical Debate on Controversial Persuasive System Design

Guiding individual decision-making in digital environments through persuasive system design (PSD) is a powerful tool. While some forms of PSD such as digital nudging are based on libertarian paternalism and mostly considered ethically acceptable, other forms have been criticized for violating user autonomy or disadvantaging users. Such “controversial PSD” has been labelled inconsistently in the literature, for example as dark patterns or (digital) sludging. Thus, Information Systems (IS) research currently lacks a common vocabulary and conceptual clarity which impedes realizing the potential of PSD in research and practice. To address this issue, we present first results of a systematic literature review on controversial PSD. By compiling an overview of prevalent concepts, this study identifies four focal points of the ethical debate on PSD (intentions, strategies, outcomes, process) and derives implications and a research agenda for IS research

14 Years of Self-Tracking Technology for mHealth -- Literature Review: Lessons Learnt and the PAST SELF Framework

In today's connected society, many people rely on mHealth and self-tracking (ST) technology to help them adopt healthier habits with a focus on breaking their sedentary lifestyle and staying fit. However, there is scarce evidence of such technological interventions' effectiveness, and there are no standardized methods to evaluate their impact on people's physical activity (PA) and health. This work aims to help ST practitioners and researchers by empowering them with systematic guidelines and a framework for designing and evaluating technological interventions to facilitate health behavior change (HBC) and user engagement (UE), focusing on increasing PA and decreasing sedentariness. To this end, we conduct a literature review of 129 papers between 2008 and 2022, which identifies the core ST HCI design methods and their efficacy, as well as the most comprehensive list to date of UE evaluation metrics for ST. Based on the review's findings, we propose PAST SELF, a framework to guide the design and evaluation of ST technology that has potential applications in industrial and scientific settings. Finally, to facilitate researchers and practitioners, we complement this paper with an open corpus and an online, adaptive exploration tool for the PAST SELF data.Comment: 40 pages, 10 figure