Ethics of Gamification in Health and Fitness-Tracking

Abstract

The use of game-like elements is become increasingly popular in the context of fitness and health apps. While such “gamified” apps hold great potential in motivating people to improve their health, they also come with a “darker side”. Recent work suggests that these gamified health apps raise a number of ethical challenges that, if left unaddressed, are not only morally problematic but also have adverse effects on user health and engagement with the apps. However, studies highlighting the ethical challenges of gamification have also met with criticism, indicating that they fall short of providing guidance to practitioners. In avoiding this mistake, this paper seeks to advance the goal of facilitating a practice-relevant guide for designers of gamified health apps to address ethical issues raised by use of such apps. More specifically, the paper seeks to achieve two major aims: (a) to propose a revised practice-relevant theoretical framework that outlines the responsibilities of the designers of gamified health apps, and (b) to provide a landscape of the various ethical issues related to gamified health apps based on a systematic literature review of the empirical literature investigating adverse effects of such apps.

Positive and Negative Impacts of Gamification on the Fitness Industry

“…Recruitment and compliance [ 28 ], accessibility to technology and digital literacy [ 30 ], user responsiveness in particular contexts [ 22 ], ethical concerns [ 17 ], and the complex relationship between behavior change techniques and actual behavior change [ 37 ], I.T. identity mediating meaningful interactions [ 38 ], designing strategies that address different user preferences [ 39 ], physical limitations [ 36 ], aesthetics improvement [ 40 ], effective gamification implementation [ 41 ], and consideration of usability concerns for particular user groups [ 42 ] are just a few of the issues that need to be taken into account.…”

“…Ethical issues related to Gamification in health and fitness tracking include privacy concerns, data security, and user autonomy [ 17 ].…”

“…A systematic literature review includes different purposes for using gamification applications in the health field. In a systematic literature review by Arora et al, they aimed to summarize the responsibilities of the designers of gamified health practices and various ethical issues [ 17 ]. The systematic review of Neupane et al aimed to examine the pedometer applications systematically [ 7 ].…”

Gamification and customer experience in online retail: a qualitative study focusing on ethical perspective

“…Manipulation is demonstrated by the following examples: companies/brands that do not reveal the content and aims of a gamified system because consumers would otherwise not engage (Kim, 2021;Kim & Werbach, 2016). Sometimes, the users may not consent to data gathering if online service providers do not explain privacy conditions or games that take use of players' additive or obsessive habits in order to make it tough for users to quit playing (Kim, 2021;Kim & Werbach, 2016;Arora & Razavian, 2021;Kriz et al, 2022). Lastly is when gamification features and procedures are hidden from individuals to whom they are applied and when gamification tactics limit rational self-reflection and weaken autonomy in unacceptable ways (Kim, 2021;Vashisht & Sreejesh 2015;Kim & Werbach, 2016;Arora & Razavian, 2021;Kriz et al, 2022).…”

“…While these ethical concerns are not comprehensive, they are illustrative of the negative consequences that creators and users of gamification programs may have on users (Weiss, 2019). For example, within a game, it may be permissible to manipulate or deceive someone, but such practices are scarcely acceptable in the real world, and if a gamification approach that transposes a game-world norm to the real world is used, ethical difficulties may develop (Arora & Razavian, 2021).…”