Digital Epiphanies: how self-knowledge can change habits and our attitudes towards them

People often have an inaccurate perception of their habits, for example, how long they spend doing various activities and how their behaviour compares to that of other people. The resulting inaccurate comparisons can lead to increased stress levels that can impact health and well-being. Personal informatics systems measure and display information about personal behaviours and can facilitate reflection and increase self-knowledge. We provide empirical evidence to show that accurate self-knowledge can result in ‘digital epiphanies’ that lead to changes in attitude and behaviour.

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