Behavior Tracking Technology and Its Effect on Consumer Well-Being Shannon Duncan

Format:

Book

Thesis/Dissertation

Author/Creator:

Duncan, Shannon, author.

Contributor:

University of Pennsylvania. Marketing., degree granting institution.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Home economics.

0338.

0386.

Local Subjects:

Home economics.

0338.

0386.

Physical Description:

1 electronic resource (209 pages)

Contained In:

Dissertations Abstracts International 86-12B

Place of Publication:

Ann Arbor : ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, 2025

Language Note:

English

Summary:

With the rise of new technologies, consumers increasingly rely on smart devices to monitor and manage different aspects of their daily lives. Apps like Mint, Duolingo, Habit Tracker, and Fitbit help consumers track financial health, learning progress, daily habits, and physical activity. In 2022, over 10 million consumers used Mint to monitor their spending (Smith 2022), while 87.4 million consumers in 2020 relied on health or fitness apps to track behaviors such as exercise and nutrition (Phaneuf 2020). Given the widespread adoption of tracking technologies, it is essential to understand not only how these tools influence consumer experiences but also how they can be designed to enhance consumer well-being. My dissertation explores both of these questions, with a particular focus on (a) how the frequency of checking one's progress affects subjective well-being and (b) how a simple, cost-free nudge (making up for failure) can improve consumer persistence after setbacks.The first essay examines how the frequency of checking progress influences consumers' well-being. Across eleven studies, we demonstrate that checking more frequently-despite unchanged objective performance-leads to lower satisfaction. This occurs because consumers tend to be overly optimistic each time they check their progress, often expecting better outcomes than reality delivers. The more frequently they check, the more often their expectations are unmet, leading to repeated disappointment. This, in turn, negatively impacts well-being, reducing self-esteem and discouraging continued engagement with beneficial behaviors and products.The second essay investigates how tracking technology can foster persistence after small failures. Seven experiments demonstrate that one simple, cost-free nudge: encouraging consumers to make up for small failures (id est working out 40 minutes today to make up for failing to work out 20 minutes yesterday) increases persistence after failure. We show evidence that this is because consumers perceive the day after a failure as an opportunity to redeem themselves, encoding missing such opportunity as two goal failures (both the past loss and the future loss) rather than one (just a future loss). As a result, consumers anticipate greater negative emotions about failing to miss their opportunity to redeem themselves than failing a subgoal itself. To avoid the heightened negative anticipated emotion of failing not one, but two, subgoals, consumers are motivated to engage in more goal-consistent behavior after failure

Notes:

Source: Dissertations Abstracts International, Volume: 86-12, Section: B.

Advisors: Sharif, Marissa Committee members: Small, Deborah; Lamberton, Catherine; Mellers, Barbara; Puntoni, Stefano

Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania 2025

Local Notes:

School code: 0175

ISBN:

9798280761155

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license