Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Social Comparison Features In Physical Activity Promotion Apps: Scoping Meta-Review., Danielle Arigo, Megan M Brown, Kristen Pasko, Jerry Suls

College of Science & Mathematics Departmental Research

BACKGROUND: Smartphone apps promoting physical activity (PA) are abundant, but few produce substantial and sustained behavior change. Although many PA apps purport to induce users to compare themselves with others (by invoking social comparison processes), improvements in PA and other health behaviors are inconsistent. Existing literature suggests that social comparison may motivate PA for some people under some circumstances. However, 2 aspects of work that apply social comparison theory to PA apps remain unclear: (1) how comparison processes have been operationalized or harnessed in existing PA apps and (2) whether incorporating sources of variability in response to comparison have been …