A short summary of the project’s aims:

The fitness world is buzzing with excitement as digital platforms strive to engage people in physical exercise. A common strategy is to recognize achievements through status, but the results are mixed, leading to growing skepticism. Status, essentially a social acknowledgment of achievement, is supposed to motivate persistence. However, the concept of status is more complex and multifaceted than it seems. Through a field study on a fitness platform that introduced a status recognition feature, this research seeks to unveil the complexity of status and its varied impact on individual fitness behavior. This not only provides a more detailed understanding of the often-implemented status mechanism and its influence on user engagement but also offers practical insights for designing and managing online fitness platforms