What+is+Captology?

Having discussed the different theories of persuasion using the ELM and Cialdini's principles, we will now look at how persuasion has been automated using computer technologies.

B.J. Fogg, working out of Stanford University first coined the word Captology - "Computers as Persuasive Technologies".media type="custom" key="12513844" width="70" height="70" Captology investigates how computers or any computer application, can be used to influence and changes peoples attitudes and behaviours. Computers include anything from mobile phones, game consoles, any wireless technologies and of course online websites.

**Fogg Behaviour Model (FBM)**
===media type="custom" key="12478070" height="110" === The ELM continuum, as previously mentioned, details how people with high motivation and ability are likely to elaborate highly on a persuasive message while people with lower ability and motivation depend on peripheral cues to process the persuasive message. This continuum has been adapted by Fogg in his Fogg Behaviour Model (FBM) and applied to the online world. In the FBM Fogg agrees that high ability and motivation are both necessary factors in changing behaviour or attitudes but he also adds a third factor - the "trigger".

The FBM gives insight into the user experience and asserts that people are persuaded to perform a behavior when all the three factors come together at once: motivation, ability, and trigger. Facebook is a classic example of when all three factors collide very successfully. A new Facebook user is prompted by Facebook to upload a profile picture. This feature of Facebook, like many other features, has persuaded millions of people to take action. Ferebee and Davis showed that there was a correlation between users who had posted a profile picture and those that continued to be Facebook users. That means millions of people have all had sufficient motivation and ability, and then Facebook has triggered these people to perform this behavior and without the trigger, the persuasive message will be lost even if there is both high motivation and high ability present.

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BJ Fogg describes how Facebook triggers behaviour change. So the questions raised with regard to successful application design are :
 * 1) What you are trying to achieve - is it a support web-site to try to encourage people to lose weight and get fit or a web-site selling books, shoes, electronics etc.?
 * 2) Who are your audience and how motivated are they to listen to you?
 * 3) How will you trigger them to visit your web-site or to perform a specific behaviour?

If a design team finds that the applications is not performing as the behavior designers intended, they can use the FBM to figure out what’s missing. Is the user motivation or ability not sufficient or are the triggers not working as intended?

**FOGG's Eight Step Design Process**
Fogg has addressed these design challenges and developed the following eight step design process (see Fig 2) for the successful design and implementation of persuasive technologies. Following this flowchart during your early design and testing phases will allow your application to fail fast (hopefully not) or to succeed and grow.



Next: What is MIP?