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A Systematic Review of the Effect of Gamification on Adherence Across Disciplines

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HCI in Games: Experience Design and Game Mechanics (HCII 2021)

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Abstract

Systematic reviews of gamification research often focus on effects on motivation and engagement. Fewer studies systematically investigate the effect of gamification on ‘adherence’, the extent to which individuals use a gamified service and experience its content, as envisioned by the creators, to derive a certain benefit. To this end, this paper presents a systematic review of the effect of gamification on adherence across disciplines, including only studies with experimental designs and empirical measurements of adherence. The results lend support to the hypothesis that gamification has a positive effect on adherence: 19 out of 27 studies report a significantly positive effect or trend. However, we also demonstrate that further debate is necessary on how to conceptualize and measure adherence across disciplines, and suggest that studies on gamification on adherence not only measure the usage behavior of individuals, but equally provide an a priori operationalization of intended use along with a justification.

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Acknowledgments

This work is part of the research projects PANACEA Gaming Platform with project number HBC.2016.0177, and Personal Health Empowerment with project number HBC.2018.2012, which are financed by Flanders Innovation & Entrepreneurship.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, KU Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200a, Leuven, Belgium

    Robin De Croon, Jonas Geuens, Katrien Verbert & Vero Vanden Abeele

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  1. Robin De Croon
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  2. Jonas Geuens
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Correspondence to Robin De Croon .

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  1. DePaul University, Chicago, IL, USA

    Xiaowen Fang

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De Croon, R., Geuens, J., Verbert, K., Vanden Abeele, V. (2021). A Systematic Review of the Effect of Gamification on Adherence Across Disciplines. In: Fang, X. (eds) HCI in Games: Experience Design and Game Mechanics. HCII 2021. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12789. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-77277-2_14

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