ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Sport Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1671543
This article is part of the Research TopicPsychological Factors in Physical Education and Sport - Volume VIView all 28 articles
Is more always better?An S‑Shaped Impact of Gamification Feature Richness on Exercise Adherence Intention
Provisionally accepted
- 1Xianda College of Economics and Humanities，Shanghai International Studies University, Shanghai, China
- 2Shanghai Vocational College of Agriculture and Forestry, Shanghai, China
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Gamification is widely used to promote exercise adherence, yet "more features" do not always translate into stronger intention to stick with exercise plans. We theorize and test a curvilinear—specifically S-shaped—association between gamification feature richness and exercise adherence intention. We model polynomial terms and probe local slopes across the observed feature-richness range to identify engagement and overload zones. The analyses support an S-shaped pattern: intention strengthens from low to moderate richness but weakens when feature sets become excessive. Additionally, digital exercise self‑efficacy fails to support the hypothesis of the inattention zone, but it amplifies gains in the engagement zone and attenuates losses in the overload zone. Designers and practitioners should target a "right-sized" feature set, avoid feature bloat, and provide adaptive controls that let users streamline secondary mechanics.
Keywords: Gamification Feature Richness, Digital Exercise Self‑efficacy, Exercise‑adherence Intention, S-shaped curve, Self-Determination Theory (SDT) 1
Received: 23 Jul 2025; Accepted: 26 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Sun, Dong and Jiang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Wenyi Jiang, 14803@shafc.edu.cn
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