Cognitive Consistency as a Facilitator of Perceived Persuasiveness and Continuance Intention in Digital Weight Management

Presenter Information

Sharon Nabwire, University of OuluFollow
Renata Savian Colvero de Oliveira, University of OuluFollow
Heta Merikallio, University of OuluFollow
Markku Savolainen, University of OuluFollow
Janne Hukkanen, University of OuluFollow
Harri Oinas-Kukkonen, University of OuluFollow

Paper Number

ICIS2025-1189

Paper Type

Complete

Abstract

Maintaining long-term engagement in behavior change support systems (BCSS) remains a challenge. Leveraging on the cognitive dissonance theory, this study positions cognitive consistency (CONS) as a key mechanism in persuasive systems design to facilitate user engagement and weight loss in a BCSS. Using data from a weight management randomized controlled trial (n=159), we develop and test a model using PLS-SEM. Results show the baseline model explained 8.6% variance in weight change, which was increased to 21.3% when including the moderating effect of intervention logs in the relationship between continuance intention and weight change. CONS and primary task support accounted for 64.1% of perceived persuasiveness, and in turn, explained 43.9% of continuance intention. Dialogue support explained 63% of the variance in CONS. The findings advance persuasive systems research by empirically validating a key design mechanism of consistency, providing theoretical and practical implications to facilitate long-term engagement in BCSS.

Comments

16-UserBehavior

Recommended Citation

Nabwire, Sharon; Savian Colvero de Oliveira, Renata; Merikallio, Heta; Savolainen, Markku; Hukkanen, Janne; and Oinas-Kukkonen, Harri, "Cognitive Consistency as a Facilitator of Perceived Persuasiveness and Continuance Intention in Digital Weight Management" (2025). ICIS 2025 Proceedings. 5.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2025/user_behav/user_behav/5