Understanding the Human Behavior of Participation in Community Sports Organizations

The growing threat of physical inactivity to human health has highlighted the rising importance of community sports organizations, which play a crucial role in promoting physical activity and improving overall public health. However, the limited understanding of human behavior leads to suboptimal resource utilization, highlighting the necessity for a scientific understanding of human behavior within such social systems to optimize resource allocation, enhance participation levels, and improve public health. In this study, we aim to gain insights into the possible mechanisms behind user participation in community sports activities and reveal the role of external incentives on individual engagement. We study the participation behavior of 2,956 members over a 6-year period in a community sports organization, and demonstrate that the participation frequency adheres to a power-law distribution. We then propose a mathematical model called habit formation and behavioral inertia (HFBI), and through experiments, we demonstrate that the data generated by the model shows a robust fit to the distribution of empirical data. We also analyze the effects of different types of activities, and find that periods of high activity participation often begin with rewarded activities, suggesting the importance of incentives to sustain long-term participation. Our study provides a scientific foundation for developing optimized strategies to enhance community sports participation. The HFBI model may also be used to understand data exhibiting power-law distributions beyond the domain of community sports.