Gamification in Fitness Apps: How Do Leaderboards Influence Exercise?

While leaderboards are a key gamification element incorporated in fitness apps to spur competition among users, various issues exist in their use. Yet, the impact of leaderboards and the social comparison they entail in these apps is under-studied and not well understood. Motivated thus, we build a theoretical model to explain their impact on the attitude and physical activity behavior of users by drawing on social comparison theory. We also propose that environmental (perceived competitive climate) and individual (self-efficacy) factors moderate the relationship between social comparison via leaderboards and users attitude. The model was tested by collecting survey and objective website data from 80 users of Nike+ Running. Our results show that users’ attitude and facilitating conditions increase their physical activity behavior. Additionally, perceived competitive climate and self-efficacy moderate the effect of social comparison on users’ attitude in opposing directions. The expected contributions and remaining research plan are described.