Influence of gamification on perceived self-efficacy: gender and age moderator effect

Abstract

PurposeIn advanced societies, lifestyles are increasingly sedentary, and it is important to identify strategies to help people acquire healthy habits, such as exercise. The present study proposes the use of gamification as a strategy for encouraging users to exercise regularly, based on the possibilities offered by “smart” devices such as smartbands.Design/methodology/approachThe work analyzes how individuals experience their participation in a gamification program, on the premise that it should provide an experience that is intrinsically motivating and fun. Also the moderator effect of the gender and age on the relationship between their experience of participating in a gamification program and perceived self-efficacy.FindingsThe results show that individuals' experience of participating in a gamification program exerts a positive influence on their perceived self-efficacy in the practice of sport or exercise. The study also finds that the variables “gender” and “age” moderate the relationship between their experience of participating in a gamification program and perceived self-efficacy, such that it exerts a greater influence on women and older people.Practical implicationsThe practical implications for the professionals and institutions involved in promoting the adoption of regular sport and exercise in society are about taking advantage of the potential of wearable technology such as smartbands. The present study finds that the use of gamification for encouraging people to adopt regular physical activity is more effective for women than for men, and for older people than for younger users.Originality/valueThe findings of this study provide a better understanding of whether gamification is an appropriate strategy for helping participants to perceive themselves as having greater self-efficacy in their chosen sport or exercise, taking into account the moderating effect of participant gender and age.

Are They Learning or Playing? Moderator Conditions of Gamification’s Success in Programming Classrooms

“…This inding corroborates claims that user characteristics afect their experiences with gamiied systems (e.g., [18,60]), as well as has been shown in the context of games (e.g., [61,76]). On the other hand, this inding is contrary to studies that found no moderator efect of gender [44,72,86]. A reason for that contradiction might be the gamiication design.…”

“…For instance, [67] found that gamiication only worked for boys; that is, a moderator efect of gender. In contrast, [72] found that gamiication inluences women and older people more. Similarly, results from [47] suggest gamiication only works for people with good attitudes towards it.…”

“…Research acknowledges that the gamiication design is determinant for users' experience with gamiied systems [51,59]. Whereas we used a mix of immersion, challenge, and social gamiication in this study, previous research [44,72,86] mostly focused on challenge-based designs. As diferent designs were used, it might be that one of them was equally good, bad, or null for all learners, whereas the other was diferent for females and males.…”

“…Therefore, one might expect that user and contextual characteristics will moderate gamiication's efect. There are studies exploring these claims, showing whether gamiication usage is successful or not depends on aspects such as age [44], major [72], attitudes towards game-based learning [3], goal orientation [29], performance [1], and the user and context in general [18,31]. Nevertheless, recent research still highlights the need for studying moderators, with calls to advance the understanding of pre-determinants and occasions in which learners take advantage of gamiication [43,49,85].…”

The Role of Gear Grind Games in Creating a Motivating Learning Environment

“…It is also said that video games how developed more violent tendencies from the player due to negative habits and outcomes found within the game that tampers with the real-life behaviours of the young people that have tread a problem in the society of gaming [13,14]. Be that as it may, positivity can be given from video games as well that helps benefit and give motivations to the player in developing interests within the game's theme and world [15].…”