TY - JOUR
T1 - When Financial Platforms Become Gamified, Consumers’ Risk Preferences Change
AU - Hüller, Christoph
AU - Reimann, Martin
AU - Warren, Caleb
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Association for Consumer Research. All rights reserved.
PY - 2023/10
Y1 - 2023/10
N2 - Does gamifying financial platforms change consumers’ willingness to take financial risk? A major trend in the financial industry has been to make financial platforms gamelike experiences by adding features like leaderboards. However, despite the growing interest in this approach, no research has systematically investigated whether and how gamification influences consumers’ financial risk taking. Six experiments (N = 3;766) demonstrate that when investment apps are equipped with game elements, consumers make substantially riskier choices. Gamification boosts financial risk taking because the presence (vs. absence) of game elements motivates consumers to pursue an additional goal (i.e., winning the game). Once this goal has been reached, consumers are no longer more risk-taking, highlighting when and why gamification entices financial risk taking. This research validates recent suspicions about the addictive potential of gamified financial platforms and helps inform discussions about how to make these platforms more consumer-friendly.
AB - Does gamifying financial platforms change consumers’ willingness to take financial risk? A major trend in the financial industry has been to make financial platforms gamelike experiences by adding features like leaderboards. However, despite the growing interest in this approach, no research has systematically investigated whether and how gamification influences consumers’ financial risk taking. Six experiments (N = 3;766) demonstrate that when investment apps are equipped with game elements, consumers make substantially riskier choices. Gamification boosts financial risk taking because the presence (vs. absence) of game elements motivates consumers to pursue an additional goal (i.e., winning the game). Once this goal has been reached, consumers are no longer more risk-taking, highlighting when and why gamification entices financial risk taking. This research validates recent suspicions about the addictive potential of gamified financial platforms and helps inform discussions about how to make these platforms more consumer-friendly.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85175024758&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.1086/726431
DO - 10.1086/726431
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85175024758
SN - 2378-1815
VL - 8
SP - 429
EP - 440
JO - Journal of the Association for Consumer Research
JF - Journal of the Association for Consumer Research
IS - 4
ER -