The Influence of Culture in the Effect of Age and Gender on Social Influence in Persuasive Technology

Research has shown that social influence can be used to effect behavior change. However, research on the role culture plays in the effect of age and gender on social influence in persuasive technology is scarce. To address this, we investigate the effect of age and gender on the susceptibility of individuals to Competition, Reward, Social Comparison and Social Learning in individualist and collectivist cultures, using a sample of 360 participants from North America, Africa and Asia. Our results reveal that there are more significant differences between males and females and between younger and older people in collectivist cultures than individualist cultures. In individualist culture, we found that males and females differ with respect to Competition only, with males being more susceptible. However, in collectivist culture, we found males differ from females with respect to Reward and Competition, with males being more susceptible, while younger people differ from older people with respect to Competition, Social Comparison and Social Learning, with younger people be more susceptible. Our findings provide designers of gamified persuasive applications with empirical insights for tailoring to the different cultures based on age and gender