Online behavior change support systems with commitment devices

Abstract

A commitment device, an attempt to bind oneself for a successful goal-achievement, has been used as an effective strategy to promote behavior change. However, little is known about how commitment devices are used and what aspects of commitment devices are related to behavior change in the real-world setting. We analyzed a largescale dataset spanning a 4-year period from StickK, an online behavior change support system which supports both financial and social commitments to help attain behavior change goals. We characterize the types of target behaviors and the topics of behavior change goals and then report descriptive statistics about commitment device usage. A series of regression analyses reveal that successful goal achievement was dependent on the configuration of a financial commitment device, but social commitment devices lacked a significant relationship. We provide several practical design implications for online behavior changes support systems such as enabling effective user interactions for commitment devices and exploring novel commitment device design space.