The process of forming a mobile media habit: results of a longitudinal study in a real-world setting

ABSTRACT

Media habits are central constructs in audience research. Yet, little is known about the formation of (media) habits. Based on theoretical elaboration and the results of a longitudinal study on the formation of a mobile media application habit—specifically the smartphone application of the Union of European Football Associations for the European soccer championship 2016—in a real-world setting, this article develops a comprehensive framework of media habit formation. The framework focuses on the core process of habit formation: Habits form with (regular) repetition of a behavior in a specific context that is perceived as rewarding. Yet, the findings of the study show that regularity in behavior performance and stable external circumstances are less crucial for the formation of a mobile media habit. Instead, gateway behaviors are proposed as relevant context features for the formation of mobile media habits.

Acknowledgments

We thank Stefan Geiß, the editor Prof. Sabine Trepte, and the reviewers for their very helpful comments on earlier versions of the article. Furthermore, we thank the 2016 survey research course at the department of communication (University of Mainz) for their support in conducting the study.

Notes

1. Excluding these participants did not change the results; therefore, they are included in the presented analyses.

2. The original SRHI contains an item measuring self-concept (“That’s typically me”). Self-concept, however, is not an integral part of the habit concept and the respective item was excluded from the SRHI (Gardner, 2015; Lally et al., 2010).

3. As the estimation of the models with random slopes for the number of repetitions (linear and quadratic) led to convergence problems, only fixed effects were estimated in the following (Hox, 2010; see Limitations for the potential causes and consequences).