Understanding the dark side of gamified interactions on short-form video platforms: Through a lens of expectations violations theory

Fei Zhou, Youhai Lin, Jian Mou, Jason Cohen and Sihua Chen

Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 2023, vol. 186, issue PB

Abstract: Short video games saw explosive growth and due to their rich content and strong communication features have provided a new marketing platform for corporate commercial activities. However, few studies have examined how to implement a gamification strategy on short-form video platforms. Based on Expectation Violation Theory, this study explored the impacts of three aspects of users' gamification interaction expectation violations on negative use behavior. By collecting and analyzing two waves of data with 320 matched samples, this study revealed that reward expectation violation, achievement expectation violation, and competition expectation violation of users' gamified interactions could predict negative use behaviors. Psychological resistance and emotional exhaustion mediated the effects of gamification expectation violations on users' negative use behaviors. Further, moral licensing negatively moderated the influence of gamification expectation violations on psychological resistance, but the moderation effect of moral licensing between gamification expectation violations and emotional exhaustion was not significant.

Keywords: Emotional exhaustion; Gamification; Negative use behavior; Psychological resistance; Short video game (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0040162522006710
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:tefoso:v:186:y:2023:i:pb:s0040162522006710

DOI: 10.1016/j.techfore.2022.122150

Access Statistics for this article

Technological Forecasting and Social Change is currently edited by Fred Phillips

More articles in Technological Forecasting and Social Change from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().