Translating social comparison elements into a mobile solution to support weight loss.

Abstract

Overweight and obesity have become a severe medical and financial societal challenge. Besides an unbalanced caloric intake and expenditure, individual behaviors and lifestyle choices shaped by the social environment are driving, if not significantly impacting the global obesity epidemic. This research in progress paper is focused on social comparison theory and presents the design of the mobile application CarepariZn that implements elements of this theory in order to support weight loss. In the application, users can compare themselves with other users similar in weight, experience, and sport motives. The ranking system includes social comparison motives such as self-enhancement, self-assessment, self-verification, and self-improvement, and provides upward and downward comparison possibilities. This app will be tested in a field experiment and the collected data will be analyzed in order to find out if social comparison affects health-related behavior and, if so, in what way(s).