The Untold Challenges of Using Apps for Behavior Change

Picture this: you're at the mall, surrounded by people shopping and chatting. Suddenly, a man comes up to you and asks if you have any spare change to help him catch the bus. But get this - he's not just any ordinary beggar. He's a super smart PhD!

In a cool study about French stuff, scientists wanted to see if they could make people give more money to a random person by saying certain words. They found a trick that was super easy and worked well - it made people give twice as much money!

Using a certain phrase has been proven to make people more likely to give money for the bus, donate to charity, and take surveys. A study looked at 42 different research projects with over 22,000 people and found that adding these words to the end of a request can make people twice as likely to say "yes." It's a simple but powerful trick to get people to agree to what you're asking for.

Guess what cool thing the researchers found out? They figured out that if you say, "But you can say no if you want," people are more likely to agree with you. How awesome is that?

Have you ever noticed how when someone tells you that you're free to choose, you're more likely to agree with them? Well, a study found that this technique works not only in person but also through email. While the study didn't specifically talk about how businesses can use this trick, it did give some ideas on how companies can get customers to do what they want.

Desire and Must

Dr. Jesse Schell, a super smart guy from Carnegie Mellon, loves to figure out why we love playing games so much. He's not just a professor, he's also the boss of his own video game company! Dr. Schell has spent a ton of time looking at research to understand why we get so hooked on games like Angry Birds and World of Warcraft. It's like we can't stop playing, even when we have boring stuff to do like work or taxes.

During the D.I.C.E Summit, Schell talked about how important it is to know the difference between things you want to do and things you have to do. He said it's like the difference between work and play, being forced to do something and doing something because you enjoy it, or doing something just to get it done versus doing it because it brings you joy.

Schell thinks it's super important to feel like you have control over what you're doing to have a good time. He talks about how Edward Deci and Richard Ryan came up with the Self-Determination Theory, which says that believing you have the power to make your own choices is important for staying motivated.

It's a bummer when cool products don't do well because they seem like chores instead of fun stuff. Schell says that our brains have separate parts for wanting and avoiding good things.

When we see things we "hafta" do, our brains see them as chores and make us want to find ways to avoid them. We might try to cheat take shortcuts, or just give up altogether. This is why we often delete apps or leave websites when they make us feel like we're being forced to do something.

The mechanism of Choice and its Success

Have you ever noticed how reminding people that they have the power to make their own choices can make a difference? In that study in France where they found that just telling people they could choose how much to pay for the bus ticket made them more likely to pay the full fare. It's pretty cool how just a little reminder can make people act differently, right?

Researchers think that saying "but you can do whatever you want" helps us not get mad when someone tells us what to do. Have you ever gotten annoyed when your mom tells you to wear a coat or felt stressed when your boss watches over your every move? That's called "reactance," and it's when we feel like our freedom is being threatened.

But when you ask someone to do something and also let them know they have the choice to say yes or no, they are more likely to agree without feeling rebellious. Giving people the freedom to choose can make them see a task as something they want to do, rather than something they have to do.

Do you think that the idea of being in control and wanting to rebel can affect how products make us do things and create new habits? Let me show you two examples that prove they can, but ultimately, it's up to you to decide for yourself.

Caloric Tracking

Let's say you want to start eating healthier, like a lot of people in the U.S. do. If you go on the Apple App Store and search for "diet," you'll find over 3,000 apps that claim they can help you lose weight. The most popular one is MyFitnessPal, which more than 350,000 users have rated.

Last year, I wanted to shed some weight, so I downloaded MyFitnessPal and gave it a shot. It's super easy to use! All you have to do is type in what you eat, and the app tells you how many calories you've had based on your weight loss goal.

I tried out MyFitnessPal for a little while and made sure to keep track of all the food I ate. If I were someone who wrote down what I ate on paper, I would have liked using MyFitnessPal instead.

I never really paid attention to how many calories I ate before using MyFitnessPal. At first, it was kind of cool to track everything I was eating, but it quickly got boring. I wasn't used to keeping a food diary every day, so it felt like a chore. I just wanted to lose weight, and the app was all about counting calories. But if I forgot to log a meal, it messed up my whole day and I felt like I had failed. It was frustrating and made me feel like giving up.

I started feeling like I had to tell my phone about all the food I was eating. MyFitnessPal turned into MyFitnessPain. I decided to download the app, but I quickly lost interest, and using it became a hassle. Keeping track of calories felt like something I had to do, and I felt like I had no other option but to do what the app told me or give up. So I gave up.

Forming connections with others

Fitocracy is a cool health app that helps you get in shape in a fun way. It's all about making healthy habits stick. Unlike other apps, Fitocracy focuses on what you want to do, not what you have to do. It's like having a personal coach cheering you on every step of the way!

When you first start using Fitocracy, it might seem like any other health app out there. It asks you to keep track of what you eat and how much you exercise, just like MyFitnessPal. But what makes Fitocracy stand out is that it knows most people struggle to stick with these habits. It's like Fitocracy is saying, "Hey, we get it. It's hard to stay on track. Let's find a way to make it easier for you." And that's what sets Fitocracy apart from the rest.

When I finished my first run and got some compliments from other people on the site, I got curious about who was saying nice things. So, I logged in and saw a question from someone named “mrosplock5” asking for advice on how to deal with knee pain from running. I remembered having the same problem a few years ago, so I quickly replied, “Running without shoes (or with really thin shoes) got rid of my knee pain. It sounds weird, but it worked for me!”

I just started using Fitocracy, but I can already tell it's addicting! Fitocracy is like a virtual gym where you can connect with other people who love working out. It feels like chatting with friends at the gym, but online. You can share tips, give each other motivation, and get praise for your progress. A study in the Netherlands even found that the social aspect of Fitocracy is what keeps people coming back for more. It's a fun way to stay motivated and reach your fitness goals!

Everyone wants to fit in and be accepted by others, right? Well, Fitocracy knows this and uses it to help people get into shape. They give you cool new tools and features as you start working out more. So, you can either keep doing things the old way or try out Fitocracy's special way of getting fit. It's up to you!

Final thoughts

MyFitnessPal has some cool social stuff to keep you interested, but it's not as fun as Fitocracy. You might not see the benefits of chatting with others right away, or maybe never at all.

It's still too soon to know which health and wellness companies will come out on top, but one thing is for sure: the most popular tech companies today are the ones we choose to use, not the ones we're forced to use. Maybe that's why we love sneaking in some time on social media or checking sports scores online - it's a chance to take a break from being told what to do by our teachers and parents.

It's a bummer that lots of companies make stuff thinking people will use it just because they have to, not because they want to. They don't make their products fun to use, so people don't want to change their habits. Instead of making things easier, they make them harder by making people learn new stuff.

When products want to make people start doing things differently, they don't force them to change. Instead, they give people the option to choose between their usual way of doing things and a new, easier way to meet their needs. By letting people decide for themselves, products can help them form new habits and stick with them for the long run.