Fitness Trackers Could be Taking the fun out of Workouts: Study

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While fitness trackers can help in the monitoring of one's workout progress, these gadgets could take the fun out of the activity, which could, in turn, put off one's enthusiasm, according to a new study from Duke University's Fuqua School of Business.

"In general, tracking activity can increase how much people do," said Professor Jordan Etkin. "But at the same time, measurement has these pernicious effects. Enjoyable activities can become almost like a job, by focusing on the outcomes of things that used to be fun."

The findings of the study may sound a bit counterintuitive as these wearables were meant to aid people in achieving their fitness goals. When Etkin was asked by the USA Today on how she was able to come up with the idea of conducting such study. She said that it all started when she gave her dad, who likes numbers and is an engineer by profession, a Fitbit to measure his steps, stairs and more.

"He seemed very focused on those quantitative outcomes and as a result he became much more stressed about how much he walked. And it wasn't just him. Even though tracking output can encourage us to do more it also sucks the fun out of activities we previously enjoyed, which makes us enjoy them less and be less likely to keep doing them in the future," she said.

Etkin also added that the findings of the study is applicable to any fun activity that people start to quantify with their fitness trackers and also covers any related device, such as a smartwatch.

In the study entitled, "The Hidden Cost of Personal Quantification," which will appear in the April issue of the Journal of Consumer Research, the researchers conducted a series of experiments in which participants were asked to color, read and walk. They then took note of the effect of tracking on the productivity of the participants for each activity and how much they are having fun doing it.

On one of the experiments, students who were asked to color simple shapes and track the number of shapes they have worked on were more productive. Another group who were asked to check regularly on the number of steps they had taken while walking were able to walk farther. And, one group was asked to read for eight minutes and to keep tabs of the number of pages they've read. While all three groups were more productive with their tasks, they also said that it felt more like work, and they were less happy and satisfied in the end.