Why Do People Abandon Activity Trackers? The Role of User Diversity in Discontinued Use

Abstract

Activity trackers are promising tools to increase the motivation to be physically active, thus strengthening users’ physical constitution and potentially preventing cardiovascular diseases. To establish behavioral changes with such beneficial consequences, prolonged continuous use of trackers seems to be necessary. However, the usage behavior of many tracker users is characterized by interruptions or complete discontinuation after only a few months. Which factors determine individual usage trajectories is still unclear. This research sheds light on user diversity to investigate how inter-individual differences are related to reasons for usage interruptions and permanence of abandonment. Results based on a survey of N = 159 former users revealed that usage motives regarding self-determination theory, domain-specific personality traits (affinity for technology interaction), and interaction variables (dependency effect, trust in activity tracker measurement) were related to specific reasons for usage interruptions. Moreover, highly autonomous usage motivation and high trust were linked to more fragile abandonment decisions.

Acknowledgements

We want to thank Dmitri Bogorad for supporting data collection and Josef Krems for providing parts of the research infrastructure for the present study.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) – Project-ID 416228727 – SFB 1410.

Notes on contributors

Christiane Attig

Christiane Attig is an engineering psychologist at Chemnitz University of Technology, where she received her Master of Science in Psychology in 2016. Her research activities focus on user diversity and user interaction with activity trackers.

Thomas Franke

Thomas Franke is a professor of Engineering Psychology and Cognitive Ergonomics at University of Lübeck. He received his PhD in 2014 from Chemnitz University of Technology. He is particularly interested in understanding and supporting resource regulation in human-technology environments with a focus on valuable resources like energy or health.