Get Vaccinated for Loved Ones: Effects of Self-Other Appeal and Message Framing in Promoting HPV Vaccination among Heterosexual Young Men.

HPV has long been constructed as a sex-specific virus. Boys and men largely perceive the virus as not related to themselves and thus develop a female-specific schema on HPV. The present study investigates message strategies for promoting HPV vaccination among heterosexual young men in the United States. Through an online experiment, this study examined the effects of reference point (self, other, vs. self-other) and message framing (gain vs. loss) on processing fluency, optimistic bias, and behavioral intentions. The findings showed a schema-matching pattern in facilitating information processing, and a schema-mismatching pattern in attenuating optimistic bias. Specifically, other-referencing messages that related the outcomes of getting vaccinated for HPV to the message recipients' sexual partners promoted processing fluency and widened the self-other gap in perceived susceptibility to HPV, regardless of the message frame. By contrast, self-other-referencing messages that highlighted the outcomes regarding themselves and their sex partners enhanced processing fluency and mitigated optimistic bias. Moreover, the attenuation in optimistic bias increased the participants' information seeking intentions and the likelihood that they would share the messages on social media. The implications for health message design are discussed from a schema-based, message-tailoring perspective.

Improving Body Satisfaction Through Fitness App Use: Explicating the Role of Social Comparison, Social Network Size, and Gender.

Body dissatisfaction is prevalent worldwide, fueling the highly lucrative diet and plastic surgery industry, with many adverse outcomes. Yet, limited attention has been dedicated to noninvasive interventions that effectively enhance body satisfaction. We argue that, by altering the target of the social comparison process, people can shift their focus from body appearance to physical activity level. The present study investigated whether social comparison in terms of physical activity level provided by fitness apps could affect users' body satisfaction. A survey was conducted with 643 users of WeRun, the Chinese leading mobile fitness app. Subsequent analyses revealed that both upward and downward social comparison mediated the positive relationship between fitness app use and body satisfaction. Moreover, the users' social network size and gender played a moderating role in the social comparison processes. Fitness app use was positively related to downward comparison for male users; social network size moderated the relationship between fitness app use and upward comparison for female users. The utility of fitness apps in mitigating body dissatisfaction is also discussed.

Uncovering the Heterogeneity in Fitness App Use: A Latent Class Analysis of Chinese Users.

This study examines fitness app use patterns and their correlates among Chinese users from the perspectives of uses and gratification theory and self-determination theory. Our sample comprised 632 users of WeRun, the fitness plugin of WeChat, the largest Chinese mobile social networking app; participants completed an online survey and provided self-tracked physical activity data, which were subjected to latent class analysis. Based on the four-class latent class model (which yielded the best model fit and the most interpretable results), 30.5%, 27.5%, 24.7%, and 17.3% of the users were categorized as light users, reward-oriented users, lifestyle-oriented users, and interaction-oriented users, respectively. Moreover, class membership was associated with gender, age, education, income, life satisfaction, autonomy, and platform-based motivations. There is a significant heterogeneity in fitness app use and exercise behaviors. Platform-based motivations and autonomy are important classification factors, as users are looking for specific kinds of gratification from their use of fitness apps. Demographics and individual characteristics are also explanatory factors for class membership. The study findings suggest that fitness app designers should segment users based on motivation and gratification.

Predicting attitudinal and behavioral responses to COVID-19 pandemic using machine learning.

At the beginning of 2020, COVID-19 became a global problem. Despite all the efforts to emphasize the relevance of preventive measures, not everyone adhered to them. Thus, learning more about the characteristics determining attitudinal and behavioral responses to the pandemic is crucial to improving future interventions. In this study, we applied machine learning on the multinational data collected by the International Collaboration on the Social and Moral Psychology of COVID-19 (N = 51,404) to test the predictive efficacy of constructs from social, moral, cognitive, and personality psychology, as well as socio-demographic factors, in the attitudinal and behavioral responses to the pandemic. The results point to several valuable insights. Internalized moral identity provided the most consistent predictive contribution-individuals perceiving moral traits as central to their self-concept reported higher adherence to preventive measures. Similar results were found for morality as cooperation, symbolized moral identity, self-control, open-mindedness, and collective narcissism, while the inverse relationship was evident for the endorsement of conspiracy theories. However, we also found a non-neglible variability in the explained variance and predictive contributions with respect to macro-level factors such as the pandemic stage or cultural region. Overall, the results underscore the importance of morality-related and contextual factors in understanding adherence to public health recommendations during the pandemic.

Does Warm Glow Promote Physical Activity? Examining the Relative Effectiveness of Self-Benefiting versus Other-Benefiting Incentives in Motivating Fitness App Use by Corporate Sponsorship Programs.

Despite an essential step in the self-regulation process, the feature of offering rewards - in particular, offering tangible rewards - is underdeveloped in most fitness mobile apps. The present study addressed this issue by harnessing the contributions of corporations in the form of providing incentives to fitness app users as part of their corporate social responsibility initiatives. This study investigated the dual mechanisms through which incentive type and functional congruence shape consumers' intention to use a fitness app and their attitudes toward the sponsor, respectively. Through a 2 (self-benefiting vs. other-benefiting incentives) by 2 (low vs. high congruence) experiment, this study found that when using other-benefiting incentives, incentives provided by high-congruence sponsors elicited more favorable attitude toward the incentive than those provided by low-congruence sponsors and, in turn, increased users' propensity to use the app. But this indirect effect was not in play when using self-benefiting incentives. From the sponsor's perspective, in the low-congruence condition, other-benefiting incentives were more effective in leading users to attribute altruistic motives to the sponsorship, resulting in more favorable attitudes toward the sponsor; however, the mediating mechanism failed to operate under the high-congruence condition. Taken together, this research shed light on the mediating mechanisms and boundary conditions of strategies of partnering sponsorship with fitness apps, making this type of partnership a win-win initiative for both the app users and the corporations involved.

Time to Work Out! Examining the Behavior Change Techniques and Relevant Theoretical Mechanisms that Predict the Popularity of Fitness Mobile Apps with Chinese-Language User Interfaces.

Eyeing the huge potential mHealth market in China, developers both inside and outside of China have created an increasing number of fitness mobile applications with Chinese-language user interfaces. The present study analyzes the content of those fitness mobile apps (N = 177), with a particular focus on their behavior change techniques and relevant theoretical mechanisms. It finds that three theoretical mechanisms, modeling/observational learning, self-regulation, and social comparison/social support, are prevalent among fitness mobile apps with Chinese-language user interfaces. Moreover, based on the configurations of the behavior change techniques, three distinct clusters are identified: "instructional apps" (N = 75), "self-regulation apps" (N = 58), and "triathlon apps" (N = 44). Among them, "triathlon apps" equipped with technical features reflecting all three theoretical mechanisms are found to be the most popular among users. This suggests the usefulness of health behavior change theories in promoting physical activity via mobile apps in that the inclusion of more theoretical content in the app design enhances the app's effectiveness. More theoretical and practical implications are also discussed.