Persuasive technology uses psychology to change user behavior and attitudes through technology. It has applications in advertising, health education, and political activism. Designers must consider different groups and ethical concerns, such as potential misuse.
Persuasive technology attempts to change the way users think and behave. This area of computer science combines several disciplines to leverage how users interact with technology to create changes in how they perceive the world around them. Applications for persuasive technology can include advertising, health education, and political activism. Many examples are ubiquitous and users may not be aware of how the technology around them affects their behavior, habits and attitudes.
Principles of psychology play a key role in persuasive technology, which aims to get people to adopt changes in their lives, rather than trying to coerce them. Psychology explains how and why people respond to persuasive arguments and illustrates how different settings can affect a user’s response. People may see an Internet source as more reliable, for example, if it is presented in plain text on a site with a gloomy visual appearance, as opposed to a cluttered site full of animation and bright colors. Changes to the site’s design and structure can impact how people use the site.
Advertising researchers have conducted extensive experiments on persuasive technology to determine how people can be persuaded to shop and change their buying habits. This research informs the advertising techniques used across technology platforms, from flashing banner ads on websites to advertising kiosks in shopping malls. Information from advertising research helps people design campaigns for political awareness, public health awareness, and other forms of persuasive technology.
Habits and attitudes can be deeply ingrained, and it can take a slow and subtle approach to create change in the way people behave. Persuasive technology harnesses human psychology to bring about these changes in campaigns that can be targeted to a variety of groups. Designers need to consider who they want to influence, as different groups can have quite different responses to campaigns. For example, a campaign could rely on mutual trust through a social network to attract younger Internet users.
Research on this topic also raises some ethical questions. People who know how to influence people could potentially misuse it to promote antisocial persuasive tech campaigns. Some researchers are interested in potential abuses, such as the use of scare campaigns to sway voters with frightening and false information. Understanding how, when, and why people respond to the materials they encounter can help you thwart such campaigns or pursue lawsuits related to unfair or libelous campaigns.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
