Why Users Comply with Wearables: The Role of Contextual Self-Efficacy in Behavioral Change

• Published in: International journal of human-computer interaction Vol. 37; no. 3; pp. 281 - 294
• Main Authors: Rieder, Annamina, Eseryel, U. Yeliz, Lehrer, Christiane, Jung, Reinhard
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Norwood Taylor & Francis 07.02.2021; Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc
• Subjects: Behavior; Behavior modification; Context; Health behavior; Personal health; Self-efficacy; Wearable computers
• ISSN: 1044-7318; 1532-7590; 1044-7318
• DOI: 10.1080/10447318.2020.1819669

Wearables provide great opportunities for improving personal health, but research challenges their capacity to evoke behavioral change effectively. Realizing the full potential of wearables requires a better understanding of users' behavior change processes. Based on self-efficacy theory, we investigate how wearables influence users' perceptions of their self-efficacy and subsequent health behavior. Using narrative interviews with twenty-five long-term wearable users, we show that wearables can have both positive and negative effects on users' perceptions of their self-efficacy and that these perceptions are subject to internal and external contexts, which can positively or negatively affect users' compliance. We also find that the internal context may have a compounding or neutralizing effect on self-efficacy, despite an adverse external context. Our study shows the contextual and transient nature of self-efficacy, thus contributing to self-efficacy theory and research on wearables and offering practical design implications.