Captology
Using Computers To Change People’s Beliefs and Behaviors

All majors welcome!

Computer Science 377A
Spring 2004
3 Units

Tuesdays, 2:15 to 5:05
Cordura Hall, Room 100

Instructor: BJ Fogg, Ph.D.
Teaching Assistant: Manu Kumar

Enrollment is limited. If you’re interested in this course, do three things: (1) read this entire webpage, (2) send email to reserve a spot to bjfogg@stanford.edu, and (3) sign up soon on Axess.

 

Course Focus
This course will explore how computing technologies -- from websites to mobile phones -- can be designed to manipulate and motivate people. There are good uses for persuasive technology (e.g., promoting health and safety), and there are bad uses (e.g., addicting people to online gambling). We’ll learn about both sides.

Course Activities

Students in the course will --

Who Should Enroll
Persuasive technology has implications for many domains: health, business, education, design, and more. Because a diverse class mix makes the experience better for everyone, I encourage students from all majors to enroll. (Note: This course does not require the ability to write code. Also, undergraduates should not be scared away by the 300-level course listing.)

More about the Instructor
I'm an experimental psychologist who teaches for the Department of Computer Science and the School of Education (I'm on the consulting faculty in both areas). I also run a research lab on campus and work in industry. You can check me out on Google and at www.bjfogg.com. I enjoy teaching captology, and I guarantee my class will never be boring.

A few things you may want to know:

Is this a difficult course?

This year my course won’t be as difficult as previous years. In this new course we’ll focus less on design and more on analysis of existing persuasive technology products, like Amazon’s Gold Box and eBay’s feedback system. I still expect you to work hard and think deeply, because this is an important topic. Students who are passionate and hardworking will find this to be one of their favorite courses at Stanford.

What can students expect to learn?

This course will teach you new ways of thinking about and designing interactive technology products. If you do the work, in 10 weeks you will be one of the world's experts in captology. In addition to learning captology, we will experiment with new types of learning methods, including a communication tool I’ve developed over the past year.

What have previous students said about my class?

excerpts from course evaluations . . .

"This is by far my favorite class."
"An amazing course!"
"The best class I've had."

What have industry people said about persuasive technology?

"[Persuasive technology] is one of the most important new developments in thinking
about design." --Jakob Nielsen

"[Persuasive technology] is for those serious about designing the future." --Clement Mok

What have academics said about persuasive technology?

"BJ Fogg has created an important new discipline, one that is of vital
importance to everyone." --Don Norman

"BJ Fogg is The credible communicator on this topic" --Philip Zimbardo

The Bottom Line(s):

If you want to change people’s lives and the world for the better, then this is the course for you. As I see it, the most influential people in the future will be those who know how to design persuasive and motivational interactive experiences. What better place than Stanford to teach and learn about the future of persuasion?

Taking this course opens the door to doing research and design in my lab, the Persuasive Technology Lab.

Readings

We'll be reading two books during the quarter. Buying these books at the Stanford bookstore is expensive, so I’m asking students to buy these books online right away. This will save you time and money.

Book

Author

Reason for reading this book

Persuasive Technology: Using Computer to Change What We Think and Do

B.J. Fogg

This is my new book that gives an overview of persuasive technology. It's the fastest way to understand the topic.

Influence: Science and Practice

Robert Cialdini

This is the most popular book on persuasion ever written. Cialdini covers six dominant principles of influence in a way readers find engaging and memorable.

Persuasive Technology Analysis

A big part of the course will be analyzing how interactive products attempt to change what people think or do. You’ll become familiar with over twenty examples during the quarter, mostly by listening to presentations from your peers. In these analysis projects you’ll work on your own, in small teams, and with the class as a whole. Our discussions will give you insight into how computers can manipulate people, something few people understand.

Industry Innovators

According to your interests, I will invite people from industry to talk to our class about their work in creating persuasive interactive experiences.

A Feel for the Academic Research

If this were a small graduate seminar, you would spend a lot of time reading articles that relate to captology. But in this overview course, you will simply find one academic article to summarize and critique. Each student will select a different article, and as a class we'll read the best ones during the later part of the quarter.

Designing a Persuasive Interactive Experience

For the final project, you will work with a team to design a persuasive interactive experience. You won’t have to build a working prototype; you just need to convey the idea clearly. We'll share all the projects on the last day of class and vote on which solutions are most likely to succeed.

 

Last update: March 31, 2004