SV Persuasive Technologies
Lecture 1 – Introduction
• People generally have good intentions and know the benefits of performing healthy
behaviours and limiting negative behaviours. However, having good intentions and being
aware of the benefits is not enough
• The primary goal of persuasive technologies is changing people’s behaviour.
Book:
• We’re limited beings in attention, time, willpower, etc.
• We’re of two minds: our actions depend on both conscious thought and nonconscious
reactions, like habits. In both cases, our minds use shortcuts to economize and make quick
decisions because of these limitations.
• Our decisions and our behavior are deeply affected by the context we’re in, worsening or
ameliorating our biases and our intention– action gap.
• One can cleverly and thoughtfully design a context to improve people’s decision making and
lessen the intention–action gap.
• Reactive thinking (aka intuitive/ System 1) is blazingly fast and automatic
• Deliberative thinking (aka conscious/ System 2) is slow, focused, self-aware and limited in
how much information it can handle at a time
• Confirmation bias → notice, and remember information already in line with our existing
thinking.
• Anchoring →difficult to make a clear and thorough assessment of an answer. The initial
anchor has a strong effect on the results. Anchoring is one of many ways in which we make
judgments that are relative to a reference point.
• Availability heuristic → When things are particularly easy to remember, we believe that they
are more likely to occur.
• A habit is a repeated behavior that’s triggered by cues in our environment. It’s automatic—
the action occurs outside of conscious control, and we may not even be aware of it happening.
Habits save our minds work; we effectively outsource control over our behavior to cues in the
environment. That keeps our conscious minds free for other, more important things, where
conscious thought really is required.
o we can build habits through simple repetition: whenever you see X (a cue), you do Y
(a routine).
o Sometimes, third element: reward, something good that happens at the end of the
routine.
o The cue tells us to act now. The cue is a clear and unambiguous signal in the
environment (smell of coffee) or in the person’s body (hunger).
o The routine can be something simple (hear phone ring, answer it) or complex (smell
coffee, turn, enter Starbucks, buy coffee, drink it), as long as the scenario in which
the behavior occurs is consistent
o The reward can occur every time—like drinking our favorite brand of coffee—or on a
more complex reward schedule. A reward schedule is the frequency and variability
with which a reward occurs each time the behavior occurs.
o When we see the cue, we anticipate the reward and it tempts us to act out the routine
to get it
• Humans are deeply affected by context (way question is asked)
• A bias is a tendency of thought or action. It is neither positive nor negative
1
, • the intention–action gap is one of the major errors of inaction (gym membership but not
going). Intention to act is there, but people don’t follow through and act on it → good
intentions and the sincere desire to do something, aren’t enough.
Summary book H1:
• We’re limited beings
• Our minds use shortcuts (aka heuristics) to economize and make quick decisions because of
our limitations. Heuristics applied in the wrong context are one cause of biases: negative and
unintended tendencies in behavior or decision making. Often because of these biases, there’s
a significant gap between people’s intentions and their actions.
• We’re of two minds → What we decide and what we do depends on both conscious thought
and nonconscious reactions, like habits. What this means is that your users are often not
“thinking” when they act. At least, they’re not choosing consciously
• Decision and behavior are deeply affected by context → This worsens or ameliorates our
biases and our intention–action gap. What your users do is shaped by our contextual
environment in obvious ways, like when the architecture of a site directs them to a central
home page or dashboard. It’s also shaped in nonobvious ways: by the people they talk and
listen to (the social environment), by what we see and interact with (their physical
environment), and the habits and responses they’ve learned over time (their mental
environment).
• We can cleverly and thoughtfully design a context → We do so to improve people’s decision
making and lessen the intention– action gap.
2
Lecture 1 – Introduction
• People generally have good intentions and know the benefits of performing healthy
behaviours and limiting negative behaviours. However, having good intentions and being
aware of the benefits is not enough
• The primary goal of persuasive technologies is changing people’s behaviour.
Book:
• We’re limited beings in attention, time, willpower, etc.
• We’re of two minds: our actions depend on both conscious thought and nonconscious
reactions, like habits. In both cases, our minds use shortcuts to economize and make quick
decisions because of these limitations.
• Our decisions and our behavior are deeply affected by the context we’re in, worsening or
ameliorating our biases and our intention– action gap.
• One can cleverly and thoughtfully design a context to improve people’s decision making and
lessen the intention–action gap.
• Reactive thinking (aka intuitive/ System 1) is blazingly fast and automatic
• Deliberative thinking (aka conscious/ System 2) is slow, focused, self-aware and limited in
how much information it can handle at a time
• Confirmation bias → notice, and remember information already in line with our existing
thinking.
• Anchoring →difficult to make a clear and thorough assessment of an answer. The initial
anchor has a strong effect on the results. Anchoring is one of many ways in which we make
judgments that are relative to a reference point.
• Availability heuristic → When things are particularly easy to remember, we believe that they
are more likely to occur.
• A habit is a repeated behavior that’s triggered by cues in our environment. It’s automatic—
the action occurs outside of conscious control, and we may not even be aware of it happening.
Habits save our minds work; we effectively outsource control over our behavior to cues in the
environment. That keeps our conscious minds free for other, more important things, where
conscious thought really is required.
o we can build habits through simple repetition: whenever you see X (a cue), you do Y
(a routine).
o Sometimes, third element: reward, something good that happens at the end of the
routine.
o The cue tells us to act now. The cue is a clear and unambiguous signal in the
environment (smell of coffee) or in the person’s body (hunger).
o The routine can be something simple (hear phone ring, answer it) or complex (smell
coffee, turn, enter Starbucks, buy coffee, drink it), as long as the scenario in which
the behavior occurs is consistent
o The reward can occur every time—like drinking our favorite brand of coffee—or on a
more complex reward schedule. A reward schedule is the frequency and variability
with which a reward occurs each time the behavior occurs.
o When we see the cue, we anticipate the reward and it tempts us to act out the routine
to get it
• Humans are deeply affected by context (way question is asked)
• A bias is a tendency of thought or action. It is neither positive nor negative
1
, • the intention–action gap is one of the major errors of inaction (gym membership but not
going). Intention to act is there, but people don’t follow through and act on it → good
intentions and the sincere desire to do something, aren’t enough.
Summary book H1:
• We’re limited beings
• Our minds use shortcuts (aka heuristics) to economize and make quick decisions because of
our limitations. Heuristics applied in the wrong context are one cause of biases: negative and
unintended tendencies in behavior or decision making. Often because of these biases, there’s
a significant gap between people’s intentions and their actions.
• We’re of two minds → What we decide and what we do depends on both conscious thought
and nonconscious reactions, like habits. What this means is that your users are often not
“thinking” when they act. At least, they’re not choosing consciously
• Decision and behavior are deeply affected by context → This worsens or ameliorates our
biases and our intention–action gap. What your users do is shaped by our contextual
environment in obvious ways, like when the architecture of a site directs them to a central
home page or dashboard. It’s also shaped in nonobvious ways: by the people they talk and
listen to (the social environment), by what we see and interact with (their physical
environment), and the habits and responses they’ve learned over time (their mental
environment).
• We can cleverly and thoughtfully design a context → We do so to improve people’s decision
making and lessen the intention– action gap.
2
