IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v18y2021i21p11052-d661263.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Ethics of Gamification in Health and Fitness-Tracking

Author

Listed:
  • Chirag Arora

    (Philosophy and Ethics Section, Eindhoven University of Technology, 5612AE Eindhoven, The Netherlands)

  • Maryam Razavian

    (Information Systems Group, Eindhoven University of Technology, 5612AE Eindhoven, The Netherlands)

Abstract

The use of game-like elements is become increasingly popular in the context of fitness and health apps. While such “gamified” apps hold great potential in motivating people to improve their health, they also come with a “darker side”. Recent work suggests that these gamified health apps raise a number of ethical challenges that, if left unaddressed, are not only morally problematic but also have adverse effects on user health and engagement with the apps. However, studies highlighting the ethical challenges of gamification have also met with criticism, indicating that they fall short of providing guidance to practitioners. In avoiding this mistake, this paper seeks to advance the goal of facilitating a practice-relevant guide for designers of gamified health apps to address ethical issues raised by use of such apps. More specifically, the paper seeks to achieve two major aims: (a) to propose a revised practice-relevant theoretical framework that outlines the responsibilities of the designers of gamified health apps, and (b) to provide a landscape of the various ethical issues related to gamified health apps based on a systematic literature review of the empirical literature investigating adverse effects of such apps.

Suggested Citation

  • Chirag Arora & Maryam Razavian, 2021. "Ethics of Gamification in Health and Fitness-Tracking," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(21), pages 1-19, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:21:p:11052-:d:661263
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/21/11052/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/21/11052/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Richard N. Landers & Elena M. Auer & Andrew B. Collmus & Michael B. Armstrong, 2018. "Gamification Science, Its History and Future: Definitions and a Research Agenda," Simulation & Gaming, , vol. 49(3), pages 315-337, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Maria Elena Latino & Marta Menegoli & Fulvio Signore & Maria Chiara De Lorenzi, 2023. "The Potential of Gamification for Social Sustainability: Meaning and Purposes in Agri-Food Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-18, June.
    2. Jan HG Klabbers, 2018. "On the Architecture of Game Science," Simulation & Gaming, , vol. 49(3), pages 207-245, June.
    3. Ozgul Cetin & Fethiye Erbay, 2021. "Gamification Practices in Museums," Journal of Tourismology, Istanbul University, Faculty of Economics, vol. 7(2), pages 265-276, December.
    4. Jan HG Klabbers, 2018. "On the Architecture of Game Science: A Rebuttal," Simulation & Gaming, , vol. 49(3), pages 356-372, June.
    5. Elena Bakhanova & Jaime A. Garcia & William L. Raffe & Alexey Voinov, 2023. "Gamification Framework for Participatory Modeling: A Proposal," Group Decision and Negotiation, Springer, vol. 32(5), pages 1167-1182, October.
    6. Pilar Martín-Hernández & Marta Gil-Lacruz & Ana I. Gil-Lacruz & Juan Luis Azkue-Beteta & Eva M. Lira & Luis Cantarero, 2021. "Fostering University Students’ Engagement in Teamwork and Innovation Behaviors through Game-Based Learning (GBL)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(24), pages 1-16, December.
    7. Francesco Bellosi & Maria Spadafora & Mario Rapaccini, 2023. "Creating the Culture for Sustainable Innovation: A Gamified Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(22), pages 1-14, November.
    8. Willy C. Kriz & J. Tuomas Harviainen & Timothy C. Clapper, 2018. "Game Science: Foundations and Perspectives," Simulation & Gaming, , vol. 49(3), pages 199-206, June.
    9. Jaakko Stenros & Annakaisa Kultima, 2018. "On the Expanding Ludosphere," Simulation & Gaming, , vol. 49(3), pages 338-355, June.
    10. Leclercq, Thomas & Poncin, Ingrid & Hammedi, Wafa, 2020. "Opening the black box of gameful experience: Implications for gamification process design," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    11. Thomas, Nibu John & Baral, Rupashree & Crocco, Oliver S. & Mohanan, Swathi, 2023. "A framework for gamification in the metaverse era: How designers envision gameful experience," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    12. Donafeby Widyani, 2021. "Gamification as a marketing strategy for Garuda Indonesia loyalty program," International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science (2147-4478), Center for the Strategic Studies in Business and Finance, vol. 10(7), pages 418-422, October.
    13. Alfonso D. Gajardo Sánchez & Luis R. Murillo-Zamorano & Joséà ngel López-Sánchez & Carmen Bueno-Muñoz, 2023. "Gamification in Health Care Management: Systematic Review of the Literature and Research Agenda," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(4), pages 21582440231, December.
    14. Pinski, Marc & Haas, Miguel & Benlian, Alexander, 2024. "Building Metaknowledge in AI Literacy – The Effect of Gamified vs. Text-based Learning on AI Literacy Metaknowledge," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 142981, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    15. Jacek Woźniak, 2020. "Gamification for Sales Incentives," Contemporary Economics, University of Economics and Human Sciences in Warsaw., vol. 14(2), June.
    16. Legaki, Nikoletta-Zampeta & Karpouzis, Kostas & Assimakopoulos, Vassilios & Hamari, Juho, 2021. "Gamification to avoid cognitive biases: An experiment of gamifying a forecasting course," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    17. David Gundry & Sebastian Deterding, 2019. "Validity Threats in Quantitative Data Collection With Games: A Narrative Survey," Simulation & Gaming, , vol. 50(3), pages 302-328, June.
    18. Hassan, Lobna & Dias, Antonio & Hamari, Juho, 2019. "How motivational feedback increases user’s benefits and continued use: A study on gamification, quantified-self and social networking," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 151-162.
    19. Richard A. Oxarart & Jeffery D. Houghton, 2021. "A Spoonful of Sugar: Gamification as Means for Enhancing Employee Self-Leadership and Self-Concordance at Work," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-16, April.
    20. Wadim Strielkowski & Elena Tarkhanova & Natalia Baburina & Justas Streimikis, 2021. "Corporate Social Responsibility and the Renewable Energy Development in the Baltic States," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-18, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:21:p:11052-:d:661263. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.