What is captology?

Captology is the study of computers as persuasive technologies. This includes the design, research, and analysis of interactive computing products created for the purpose of changing people's attitudes or behaviors.

As the graphic shows, captology describes the area where computing technology and persuasion overlap.

In the last few years we've seen this area 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 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. Some of these older papers are still good, but some are out of date.

Also of note: Our lab's most popular page is about designing websites for credibility: Stanford Guidelines for Web Credibility. This document is a practical summary of our research on Web credibility and online trust.

More information

If you need more information, contact us. Although we get many requests, we try to be as helpful as our time allows.

Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab / Center for the Study of Language and Information
Cordura Hall, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-4115, 1-650-723-0695. Copyright 2004.