Volume 10, Number 4

Analysis of Gamification Elements to Explore Misinformation Sharing Based on U&G Theory:
A Software Engineering Perspective

  Authors

Malik Malki and Amin Shaqrah, College of Computer Science & Engineering in Yanbu- Taibah University, Medina, Saudi Arabia

  Abstract

Gamification elements provide apersonal drive to urge user experience, emotion, fun, and engagement, positively or negatively. These gamification elements may have been unintentionally employed through the designand implementation process of social media platforms to encourage users’ behaviour towards misinformation sharing. This study intends to answer the subsequent question” What are the mostly used gamification elements that could possibly encourage users to share misinformation on social media platforms?”. The study empirically investigates the usage of gamification elements and their relation to U&G theory with 286 participants. The results indicated that gamification elements usage scored high with regard to the self-expression perspective (frequency=216), as well as the interaction & collaborations perspective (frequency=198). whereas, the information seeking perspective scored low (frequency=59) and leaderboard were the least usage(frequency=43). The results may be useful to guide software engineering, developers, GUI specialists to cater for design elements settings and their possible negative effects in social media contexts.

  Keywords

Online misinformation, Gamification elements, Software engineering, UGT