PERSUASIVE TECHNOLOGIES MID-TERM
Introduction
Changing habits and sustaining healthy and beneficial behaviors is very difficult (difficult to
start/maintain/stop). The primary goal of persuasive technologies is to change people’s behaviour. It
can help, by:
• Grabbing attention and providing reminders (reminder of Duo Lingo app)
• Showing instantaneous behaviour feedback (speeding meter of car)
• Evaluating behaviour in terms of right/wrong
• Simulating future situations (simulation games or prototypes)
Domain examples: health, sustainability, education, finance, safety, personal growth
Types: training, behavioral therapy, coaching, education, games, government information, marketing
Shift in roles: back in the day, we told computers what to do. Now, computers tell us what to do
(regarding behaviour change). PS: nice book (not for this course tho): persuasive technology, BJ Fogg)
2 solutions for going from state1 to state2: make state1 inaccessible, or create supportive behaviour.
Persuasive strategy = collection of coherent activities that support the process of behavior change. A
persuasive strategy has 2 properties:
1 It increases or decrease the ability of the user to make more or less effort
2 It increases or decrease the motivation of the user to make him more or less willing to make
an effort
Understanding human behaviour
Behaviour and limitations
Behaviour = an action, activity or process which can be observed and measured. A behaviour occurs
in response to internal or external stimuli. It has a trigger, an actor, and it happens in a certain
context (social environment, physical environment, mental environment). Behaviour knows 3 types:
• Objectively observable behaviour (e.g. you see someone dancing)
• Introspectively observable behaviour (e.g. thinking, so it’s not visible for others)
• Non-conscious behaviour (e.g. breathing)
Properties of behaviour :
➔ Observable (overt) or not observable (covert) | e.g. talking vs. thinking
➔ Performed consciously or performed unconsciously | e.g. studying vs. walking
➔ Simple or complex | e.g. smiling vs. changing a tire on a car
➔ Familiar or unfamiliar | e.g. walking to your office vs. climbing the Mount Everest
➔ Voluntary or involuntary | e.g. clapping vs. breathing
➔ Innate or learned | e.g. sleeping vs. riding a bike
, • Innate behaviour is genetically hardwired in an organism. The actor responds without prior
experience. For example, a newborn baby’s nursing reflex.
• Learned behaviour is developed in an organism as a result of experience.
o Classical conditioning: learning to associate a new stimulus with an existing,
involuntary behaviour response (associated with a stimulus)
o Operant conditioning: learning to associate a voluntary behaviour response with a
consequence / perform a behaviour without being told to do so. You do it more or
less frequently based on the reward or punishment received after performing it.
If you get sprayed with water every time the word ‘blue’, this is classical conditioning. Putting her
hands or a paper in front of her face every time she hears the word, is operant conditioning.
▪ Any event that increases the likelihood that the same behaviour will occur
again, is a reinforcer/reward. Positive reward: you get a reward for doing
something good. Negative reward: you get a reward for stopping something
bad (e.g. you put your seatbelt on and the car stops beeping, or you take a
paracetamol and the head ache stops).
▪ Any event that reduces the likelihood that the behaviour will recur, is a
punishment. Positive punishment: something is added (e.g. you get a traffic
ticket for speeding). Negative punishment: something is taken away (e.g. you
may not play videogames for 2 days).
Complex learning: we are capable of more complex learning than simply learning a conditioned
series of behaviours. For example, spatial learning, cognitive maps, and predictions.
Intention-action gap: behaviour change is difficult. People generally have good intentions and are
aware of the benefits and risks of performing certain behaviour. However, people struggle to turn
intention into action, even when benefits outweigh the costs. This is because of these limitations:
• Attention – we get distracted | Time - we do not have time | Cognitive capacity - we become
overwhelmed | Memory we forget things
Limitation workarounds
Dual process theory:
➢ System 1; fast, non-conscious, automatic, intuitive, emotional, easy
o Effective in familiar situations in which past experience is relevant
➢ System 2; slow, conscious thought, checked choices, deliberative, rational, difficult
o Effective when we rationally analyze unfamiliar situations and attempt to solve
complex problems
We use shortcuts in both systems.
1. Heuristics → rules of thumb that help us make quick and reasonable decisions. Examples:
