Research On The Psychological Mechanism Of Gamification Promoting Online Users’ Micro Public Welfare Behavior

In response to the government’s call to focus on society and actively participate in public welfare,many Internet enterprises have taken the initiative to assume corporate social responsibility.In addition to actively donating money and goods to charitable organizations or vulnerable groups,Internet platforms such as Alipay and Weibo have taken a series of public welfare measures in recent years,developing online gamified Mini Apps such as “Ant Manor”,“Ant Forest” and “Panda Keeper” that focus on micro public welfare to encourage their consumers and users to participate in public welfare together.This approach has not only made significant contributions to the development of micro public welfare undertakings in China,but also helped to enhance user engagement and enhance the reputation of enterprises.Therefore,whether to promote the development of social micro public welfare or improve the management efficiency of enterprises,it is of great significance to explore how gamified applications can promote the continuous participation of users and ultimately motivate their micro public welfare behaviors.Although the elements of gamification design,such as features,mechanisms and affordances,have received a certain amount of attention at home and abroad,there is still a gap in the exploration of gamification in the emerging field of micro public welfare.In order to identify the dynamic pattern and emotional cognition of online users in gamified applications of micro public welfare,and explore the psychological mechanism of gamification promoting online users’ micro public welfare behavior,this thesis adopts a mixture of qualitative and quantitative research methods.Based on MDE（Mechanics-Dynamic-Emotion）gamification design framework,this thesis firstly selects the participating users of “Ant Manor” in Alipay as research objects for exploratory research.Through the online observation method of network ethnography,the researcher personally participated in gamification activities,and at the same time paid attention to users’ comments about “Ant Manor” on various community communication platforms.Preliminary observation shows that the mechanism design of gamified applications on micro public welfare has been continuously optimized and is closely related to the dynamic feedback of users,which is in line with the concept of MDE design framework.Then,combined with text analysis,this thesis collected the texts about “Ant Manor” from users on Zhihu platform and analyzed word frequency statistics,keyword recognition,LDA theme model,etc.Finally,it identified four kinds of gamification dynamics when players participated in the gamification activities of Ant Manor: self-expression,reward,competition and altruism.It provides a basis for the construction of subsequent empirical models.In empirical research part,this article builds the empirical model based on MDE gamification design framework and goal-framing theory,and uses structural equation model statistical method to carry on the empirical test,discussing the mediating roles of frame goals（including hedonic,gain and normative goals）and the moderating role of public welfare climate in the relationships between users’ gamification dynamics and their micro public welfare behavior.The results show that gamification dynamics can affect users’ enjoyment and gain respectively.Competition negatively affects users’ enjoyment and has no significant effect on users’ gain.Users’ gain will positively affect their perceived enjoyment,then enjoyment and gain together will positively affect users’ personal norm.Finally,users’ enjoyment and personal norm are promoting their realization of micro public welfare.Public welfare climate can negatively moderate the impact of users’ enjoyment on their micro public welfare behavior.According to the qualitative and empirical research results,this thesis provides theoretical and management enlightenment.Theoretically,this thesis enriches the theoretical research on the gamified applications of micro public welfare,tests the applicability of MDE gamification design framework in micro public welfare context,and discusses the theoretical relationships among users’ three frame goals and the moderating effect of external public welfare climate in the context of micro public welfare.In reality,this thesis provides scientific and effective design suggestions and optimization directions for designers of gamified applications on micro public welfare,and clarifies the negative impact of competition on online users.