Is Fitness Technology-Facilitated Social Comparison the Thief of Well-Being? The Mediating Role of Social Comparison on the Relationships Between Passion and Performance Self-Esteem

Practice and Policy Abstract Popular fitness technologies such as Fitbit, Strava, MyFitnessPal, and Apple Fitness+ provide users with information enabling them to compare their activity to that of other exercisers they have added to their app. However, different people will interpret this social comparison information in different ways. This study provides one explanation as to why social comparison information provided by fitness technologies leads to differing performance self-esteem outcomes for exercisers. What we find is that exercisers holding a harmonious passion for their exercise activity can interpret fitness technology-facilitated social comparison information in an adaptive way; that is, to see better others as a state they can obtain and worse others as evidence of their success. Conversely, the obsessively passionate are prone to interpreting such information in maladaptive ways; that is, to see better performing others as evidence of their own failure and other’s poor performance as a sign that they will also falter. These maladaptive interpretations may lead to psychological harm (e.g., reduced self-esteem and well-being). Stemming from these findings, we suggest fitness technology developers consider designing their apps to adapt to exerciser’s characteristics, such as passion, to minimize the negative effects of fitness technology-facilitated social comparison information.