This dissertation is an examination of how push notifications affect habit formation andthe relationship between habit and mobile application use. For the purpose of this study, we created a simple weather forecast mobile application for a 20-day panel study of two randomly assigned groups: one received push notification alerts and the other did not. During the period of study, participants were asked to use the application every day and completed four surveys five days apart. This dissertation examined the temporal sequencing and mutual influence between habit strength for visiting the application and application usage behaviors (i.e., frequency of visits and duration on the application use) using bivariate latent difference score structural equation modeling. Longitudinal data from 115 smartphone application users revealed level ofhabit strength for visiting the application through push notification alerts to be positivelyassociated with changes in frequency of visits. Higher scores on habit strength anticipated increases in frequency of visits. Repeated-measured ANOVAs showed a significant difference between users who received push notification alerts and the other users who did not in frequency of visits and push notification receivers visited the application more during the study period. In addition, users who clicked push notification alert messages visited more than users who received push notifications but did not click. These findings highlight the role of external media prompts in media habit formation and usage and provides evidence of causation in media use - adding to our understanding of the cognitive mechanisms of media habit formation in ways that were absent in prior research.
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