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What’s Captology?
The Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab creates insight into how computing products — from websites to mobile phone software — can be designed to change what people believe and what they do.
Yes, this can be a scary topic: machines designed to influence human beliefs and behaviors. But there's good news. We believe that much like human persuaders, persuasive interactive technologies can bring about positive changes in many domains, including health, business, safety, and education. We also believe that persuasive technology can bring about world peace in 30 years. With such ends in mind, we are creating a body of expertise in the design, theory, and analysis of persuasive technologies, an area called “captology.”
By arriving at this page, you've reached the main website for our research lab, directed by Dr. BJ Fogg. On this site you'll find an overview of captology, learn about examples and have access to captology resources, and be invited to receive our lab's newsletter. We also share some lab insights in blog form at our Captology Notebook.
If you want to watch persuasive technology in action, go to Captology TV. This site has dozens of short videos showing how companies use the web today to influence people's thoughts and behaviors.
We specialize in "mobile persuasion"
Our lab's primary focus these days is investigating how mobile phones can be platforms for persuasion. Early in 2007 our lab organized the first Mobile Persuasion conference. Over 280 people attended. We then put together a new book entitled Mobile Persuasion: 20 Perspectives on the Future of Behavior Change. This book has short, insightful chapters from over 20 authors. Of course, we hope that you buy this new book today.
Mobile persuasion is important to understand. We predict that in 10-15 years mobile phones will be the primary platform for changing people's attitudes and behaviors, surpassing the persuasive power of TV, radio, and the web &mdash combined. (The Mobile Persuasion book explains why.) Because the mobile phone platform has unprecedented potential for persuading people, we will continue to focus much of our lab's resources on this topic.
Global impact of captology
Our lab organized the 2007 International Conference on Persuasive Technology. This event brought together leading researchers and practitioners from around the world to Stanford, the place where the study of persuasive technology began in 1993. (The 2006 Persuasive Technology Conference was hosted by the Eindhoven University of Technology. The 2008 Persuasive Technology Conference returns to Europe, with Finland as the host.)
You'll find more of our lab's work at another website, which specializes in Web credibility. At our other website you'll learn what leads people to trust &mdash or not trust &mdash what they find online. This site includes our 10 Credibility Guidelines for enhancing online trust and a report on a large Web credibility study, done in collaboration with Consumers Union.
People often ask how they can learn more about captology. Here are some suggestions:
- Read the book Persuasive Technology: Using Computers to Change What We Think and Do.
- Read the book Mobile Persuasion, mentioned previously.
- Sign up for the periodic email newsletter from our lab.
An overview of captology
As the graphic shows, captology describes the area where computing technology and persuasion overlap.
This area continue to grow quickly. Each week more computing products are designed to change what users think and do. We expect this trend to continue, especially as mobile phones become more capable of running third-party software applications.
Captology applies to many areas of life
We've identified over 100 uses for persuasive technology. Hundreds of other uses exist. Whenever there is a need to change what people believe or how they behave, persuasive technology may very well play a role.
How to learn more about captology
Some of our publications explain fundamental issues in captology:
- the aforementioned book Persuasive Technology: Using Computers to Change What We Think and Do
- a chapter on captology in the The Persuasion Handbook
- a chapter on persuasion in The Human-Computer Interaction Handbook
- a 99-page report describing a large Web credibility study we conducted in collaboration with Consumers Union.
You can also learn about captology by reading our older topic papers on an archived version of our lab's website. Some of these papers are still insightful, but please understand that some content is out of date.
More information
If you need more information, contact Dr. BJ Fogg. Our team tries to be as helpful as our time allows.