Employing Emotion Regulation Strategies in Tracking Personal Fitness Progress

ABSTRACT

This study examined the effect of adding an emotion regulation feature into fitness trackers. Applying the theoretical framework of emotion regulation, we argue that such feature can mitigate tracker users’ downward emotions due to failure to meet their fitness goals, and as such, the users would be continuously motivated to meet their fitness goals. To answer our hypotheses and research questions, we conducted a 2 (emotional intensity: low vs. high) × 3 (emotion regulation strategy: no regulation vs. cognitive change vs. attention deployment) online between-subjects experiment (N = 228). Our results indicate that emotion regulation function successfully regulated users’ downward emotions, which enhanced their state psychological well-being, perceived self-efficacy for exercise, and then facilitated more favorable fitness outcomes. We discuss design implications based on our results.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lewen Wei

Lewen Wei is a PhD Candidate of Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications at Pennsylvania State University. Her research interest is in psychological processing of mediated messages using quantitative methods across different contexts, including health informatics, digital advertising, self-presentation on social media, etc.

Jin Kang

Jin Kang is a PhD Candidate of Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications at Pennsylvania State University. Broadly, her research interest is in self-representation in virtual environments. She also examines how individuals’ interaction with nonhuman agents affects their cognition, behavior, and affect.