A Study On The Impact Of Persuasive Technology On Continuous Green Behavior Of Ant Forest Users

The natural environment has been deteriorating due to a series of environmental problems such as climate change,marine pollution,acid rain,and desertification.Governments worldwide have issued schedules for carbon peaking and carbon neutrality.Although the effect of individual input was not apparent in the past environmental protection practices,there is still a large potential for carbon emission reduction on the public side.The success of the ant forest has demonstrated the feasibility of information systems to stimulate large-scale public environmental protection.The ant forest is a green information system designed to protect the natural environment.Recently,most research on green information systems has been focused on the enterprise,with a lack of research focused on individual-oriented green information systems such as the ant forest.Additionally,most research on green behavior has been concentrated in the offline context,with little research examining the underlying mechanisms of green behavior in the online context.Persuasive technology provides a system design frame aimed at influencing and persuading user behavior.It is proven that persuasive technology has deep impacts on users’ long-term behavioral habits in research on behavior change support systems.Pro-environmental self-identity is also proven positive on green behavior in offline environmental protection context.There is practical significance of analyzing and extracting the features of individual user-oriented green information systems such as the ant forest.It is promotable for the research and practice of green information systems to study its impact mechanism on users’ will to continue green behavior.Therefore,this thesis focuses on the system features of the ant forest and how persuasive technology influence users’ green behavior.Based on the persuasive technology theory and the identity theory,this thesis analyzes the basic logic of how persuasive technology features are involved in users’ self-identity feedback,extracting the systematic features of the ant forest.Further empirical research examined it.The thesis constructs a theoretical model of the impact of persuasive technology on ant Forest user behavior based on persuasive technology theory,identity theory,symbolic interaction theory,and motivation theory.Results of empirical research(N=299)show that the primary task support and social support of persuasive technology features positively influence green behavior and intention to continue using through pro-environmental self-identity.Additionally,the primary task support,social support,and perceived creditability influence users’ green behavior and intention to continue using by forming the overall perceived persuasiveness of the system.The empirical research verified the mediating effect of proenvironmental self-identity and the moderating effect of the perceived cost.The results show that pro-environmental self-identity plays a mediating role between persuasive technology features and green behavior and intention.Overall,the perceived cost has a positive moderating effect on the relationship between pro-environmental self-identity and continuing intention.With perceived cost at a high level,the positive moderating effect of perceived cost on the relationship between pro-environmental self-identity and continuing intention is more prominent.In theory,this thesis explains the internal mechanism of green behavior through selfidentity,providing a new perspective and viewpoint for individual-oriented research on user behavior in green information systems and online contextual research on green behavior.In practice,this thesis provides reliable empirical knowledge for the persuasive design of green information systems and design related to user self-identity.This thesis also provides some references for the cost calibration in the system operation.