Paper Type

Short

Paper Number

1748

Description

With the development of mobile technologies, online group-based intervention has emerged as a novel approach to promote smoking cessation. However, there has been limited research on how features in online group-based interventions contribute to shaping behavior change. Using unique data from a mobile smoking cessation platform, we investigate how herding cues and the use of @mentions affect members’ commitment to smoking cessation. Our results show that herding cues indicating a higher rate of peer adherence to abstinence check-in, and more connections facilitated through @mentions are associated with reduced likelihood of quitting the online smoking cessation group. Further, we found the effects vary among individuals, depending on their prior group experiences and failure reasons. Our findings have implications for the design of mobile cessation apps, indicating the need to develop different strategies tailored to effectively retain distinct user groups based on their characteristics.

Comments

Healthcare

Download

Share

COinS
 
Jul 2nd, 12:00 AM

The Effects of Herding Cues and Social Connectivity on Online Group-based Smoking Cessation

With the development of mobile technologies, online group-based intervention has emerged as a novel approach to promote smoking cessation. However, there has been limited research on how features in online group-based interventions contribute to shaping behavior change. Using unique data from a mobile smoking cessation platform, we investigate how herding cues and the use of @mentions affect members’ commitment to smoking cessation. Our results show that herding cues indicating a higher rate of peer adherence to abstinence check-in, and more connections facilitated through @mentions are associated with reduced likelihood of quitting the online smoking cessation group. Further, we found the effects vary among individuals, depending on their prior group experiences and failure reasons. Our findings have implications for the design of mobile cessation apps, indicating the need to develop different strategies tailored to effectively retain distinct user groups based on their characteristics.

When commenting on articles, please be friendly, welcoming, respectful and abide by the AIS eLibrary Discussion Thread Code of Conduct posted here.