Shown Their Own Step Counts, Men Walked 60% More
Copies it for your coding agent, which checks the fit and builds it · The whole record, as markdown
Daily steps of men whose phones showed their own step counts and history (with weekly encouraging texts), against men whose phones showed nothing; 152 men over six weeks, 2011 (bActive, Harries et al.). Adding the group average added nothing significant.
Direct research included. Read the findings and limits.
- 1 entry · direct research
- 2 entries · related research
- 1 entry · company accounts
From Apple, bActive, WEIGH, Etkin
Overview
Make progress easy to see: show people how they’re doing against their own recent past, capture the data automatically, and add a short note when the trend turns. Show missing days as gaps and let people hide the numbers.
Detailed self-tracking is hard to keep up and adherence falls over time; current products answer with passive capture and a comparison against the person's own average rather than a target (Harries et al.; Steinberg et al.; Apple).
Fits when
- Behaviours a sensor or connected device can record without user action
- Showing the person's own numbers: adding the group average added nothing significant
- Products with enough history per person to draw a trend; Apple waits for six months of data
Evidence & sources 4 entries
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Good to knowFit and evidence notes
- Fit to consider
- For activities people enjoy, let them hide the numbers: measuring output reduced enjoyment in Etkin’s experiments.
- About the evidence
- bActive paired step-count displays with weekly texts; WEIGH tested a scale, graph, emails, lessons and a calorie target. Neither isolates the trend display.
Copy includes 2 more limitations, 4 failure modes, the full evidence, and adaptation guidance.
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