Persuasive Tools
Computers were initially developed as calculation devices, relegated to the task of performing calculations upon input to save labor and reduce mistakes made by human beings.
The author mentions the infamous quote by Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, who proclaimed that "there is a world market for maybe five computers." Considering the capabilities of computers of his time, the statement wasn't that ludicrous.
Since then, computers have evolved to serve a myriad of functions, such that the notion of a personal computer is no longer absurd - it's to the point where it is more realistic to wonder how a person can do much of anything without one.
And looking to the future, it is reasonable to predict that computers as tools will become ubiquitous, used in virtually every human activity, as computing becomes mobile and many ordinary devices become computer-enabled and interconnected.
Methods of Persuasion
The focus is narrowed from "tool" to "persuasive tool", which is designed to change attitudes or behaviors by making a desired outcome easier to achieve (EN: or ensuring compliance to defined procedure in a sequence of tasks).
In this regard, computers have seven methods of persuasion, each of which will be explored in detail: reduction, tunneling, tailoring, suggestion, self-monitoring, surveillance, and conditioning.
It's noted that, in practice, devices and systems often use some combination of these strategies rather than focusing exclusively on one.
Reduction
Reduction persuades through simplifying. There is a tendency for people to avoid tasks that seem difficult and complex - or in more specific terms, to optimize the effort-to-reward ratio. By reducing the cost and effort to achieve a goal, computers help to reduce the amount of effort for a given reward, and in practice, this has been found to be effective in encouraging desired behaviors.
A low-tech example is the postage-paid envelope, which increases response rates by removing the necessity of a respondent to find an envelope and stamp. I high-tech example is "one-click" shopping on an e-commerce site, which boost sales by relieving the user of the necessity of going through the ordering tasks (entering an address, getting out a credit card, etc.)
It's also noted that reduction has an impact upon self-perception: a person who finds a task "easy" derives from this a sense of competence and capability. Performing the task makes them feel smarter, better about themselves, which is also highly motivational, especially when the task is perceived as being difficult beforehand.
(EN: This can also be related to social esteem. There is a degree of esteem conferred to a person by others who are daunted by a task, and express their respect for another person who is able to perform it with ease.)
An example is provided of sites that facilitates participation in the political process: they enables users to send a message to their political representatives, relieving them of the burden of having to research contact information, compose a message, and deal with the necessities of mailing a physical letter. The result has been a significant increase (which could fairly be called a "deluge") of communication between citizens and elected officials via the digital medium
Tunneling
Tunneling is a technique used to channel users into a predetermined sequence of actions or events (a task "flow").
From a functional perspective, tunneling technologies can make it easier to perform a sequence of steps in a task, dividing a complex activity into a sequence of more understandable steps.
From a psychological perspective the tunnel packages the steps into a single unit, an the user yields a level of self-determination and is committed to completing the sequence. In the context of a flow, the user is more inclined to engage in activities they may not have accepted if they were presented outside the context of the flow, as their only method of refusing a specific activity is to abandon the entire flow.
An example is the software installation process, which guides the user through a step-by-step process. But during the time at which the installation software is performing tasks, additional information may be presented, such as promotions for other products, and there is often a step that is presented as mandatory that requires the user to provide personal information to "register" the software. Because the user wishes to complete the installation, they will abide the advertisements and may provide information they would normally refuse to share because they have the impression that it is a necessary part of the overall task.
If the software creates an artificial wait time in order to show an advertisement, or gives the impression that surrendering personal information is required, or implies that exiting the installation sequence will damage the user's computer to coerce compliance, this is clearly a violation of ethics.
In regard to surrendering personal information, the author remarks that it is a common practice for users to recognize that the information is not strictly required, and to enter garbage or false information in order to get past the roadblocks. The dishonesty of the software justifies dishonesty in return.
Tailoring
A tailoring technology is a computing product that provides information relevant to individuals to change their attitudes or behaviors or both. Tailoring technologies make life simpler for computer users who don't want to wade through volumes of generic information to find what's relevant to them.
Tailoring pertains to providing information that is relevant to the user.
From a functional perspective, tailoring saves the user the effort of sifting through large amounts of generic information to find what is relevant to them, personally or in the context of a task.
From a psychological perspective, it has been found that tailored information is more effective than generic information in affecting attitudes and behaviors. There is specific research in the healthcare industry that indicates a higher rate of compliance when information is specific to a patient's type and stage of disease, level of education, and attitude toward their condition.
Tailoring can also be effective in benchmarking statistical information about an individual against a norm to which they are motivated to conform or a standard they are motivated to exceed.
With the advent of personalization on the Web, many Web sites are seeking to profile their users and provide tailored information for commercial purposes. Based on their behavior on the site, previous purchases, and other details gathered from the user, the sites tailor their advertisements, which has been found to have a significant impact on revenue.
It's also noted that persuasive messaging is more effective if it merely appears to be tailored. That is, the content of the message is not based on behavior, but the presentation makes it appear to have been targeted. It is theorized that people are more likely to pay attention if they think that they are being scrutinized (See "surveillance" later in this chapter).
There is some argument over the ethics of tailoring. In instances in which advertisements are tailored to the user, some would argue that it is beneficial (they are not annoyed by things that are unlikely to be of interest) whereas others would argue that it is taking unfair advantage or using information for purposes that were not clearly disclosed to the user.
A less debatable ethical concern with tailoring is discrimination, not only in the sense of judgments made based on demographic factors (race, gender, age, etc.) but also in exploitation of behavioral cues to exploit destructive tendencies, such as an investment site that recommends high-risk investments that it would not recommend for most consumers to users whose past behavior shows a proclivity for making unwise investment choices, or unsophisticated users who do not seem to understand the level of risk.
Suggestion
Suggestion is defined as delivering a message that proposes an action at an opportune time. The latter is derived from the rhetorical principle of "kairos," which maintains that the audience (or a single person) may be more favorably disposed to a request in a specific instant.
From a functional perspective, suggestion is used to prescribe tasks in an opportune order, and to refrain from interfering with a user who is focused on a course of action and would be displeased by an interruption.
Psychologically, suggestion considers the mental state of the subject and seeks to identify the conditions under which the subject's mind is most vulnerable to external influences.
Suggestion technology considers the informational and behavioral context of the user in choosing a context in which the user will be most likely to pay attention to and act upon a cue. An example of this is the suggestive selling that is built into shopping carts that suggests a product that may be complementary to one that was recently chosen.
Another example is the Speed Monitoring Awareness and Radar Trailer (SMART) system that communities often place at roadsides in residential districts and school zones, where it has been found to reduce the average speed of vehicles that use a specific route, even after the trailer has been removed. (EN: This may be a matter of surveillance rather than suggestion.)
Further, there is increasing research in the use of GPS technology to present suggestions when the user is in an opportune location. The user is more likely to enter a coffee shop if they are nearby than to have to travel several blocks to arrive there.
It is also noted that classical rhetoricians sought not merely to exploit opportune moments, but to create them. It is typical in motivational speech for the speaker to use narrative or exposition to alter the audience's mindset before switching to the argumentative (persuasive) thrust of their speech. The same is true of commercial messages and sales pitches.
Self-Monitoring
Self-Monitoring technology enables the user to be aware of behavior that they may not otherwise have noticed, in order to compare these measurements to desired benchmarks.
The functional perspective is that technology is capable of monitoring things that a person may be unable to perceive (such as blood pressure) or cannot easily keep record of (such as the distance they walk on a normal day)
Psychologically, self-monitoring feeds the desire for self-awareness and achievement. It is also noted that there appears to be an intrinsic motivation in monitoring and evaluation, as the subject who is aware of monitoring generally feels a desire to achieve a specific "score." Also, monitoring devices are often equipped with feedback mechanisms to provide positive or negative reinforcement.
The author uses the example of heart-rate monitors, that are devices often worn directly on the body by patients who suffer from cardiopulmonary conditions that require them to refrain from overexertion. When the heart rate exceeds the desired threshold, an alert sounds, prompting the individual to decrease their activity and, over time, modify their behavior to avoid activities that cause overexertion.
Surveillance
Surveillance differs from self-monitoring in that the information gathered is provided to another party, with the knowledge of the subject that he is being observed.
From a functional perspective, it is largely similar to self-monitoring, except that another person becomes the recipient and an indirect provider of feedback.
From a psychological perspective, surveillance is rather more sinister: it plays upon the subject's fear of social embarrassment or direct reprisal, and prolonged periods of surveillance contribute to a constant state of fear, known as paranoia.
When people are aware that they are being watched, they change their behavior to match what is expected of them, or what they assume to be expected of them (the Hawthorne effect)
A common use of surveillance is companies that monitor their worker's behavior in the workplace through cameras, microphones, and monitoring telephone and Internet usage. A 2001 survey by the American Management Association indicated that 77% of major US firms actively surveil their employees in the workplace, and the "overwhelming conclusion" is that it has been highly effective.
(EN: The "overwhelming conclusion" is a bit indefinite here - if the goal is to decrease employee theft, I would imagine it's been effective. If it is to increase worker productivity, I'd need a bit more statistical evidence to accept that. However, I have seen statistical evidence that surveillance damages employee morale, and increases turnover and absenteeism, so one would wonder if "success" in some areas is mitigated by failure in others.)
Surveillance is an ethically shaky proposition on a number of fronts. Covert surveillance, via the use of hidden cameras or installation of "spyware" on a computer, is universally declaimed to be unethical and is in some instances has been made illegal. But even overt surveillance draws objections under conditions in which the user does not voluntarily consent to be observed, cannot feasibly avoid being observed, or is not informed of the parties with which the surveillance is made available.
Conditioning
Conditioning is the use or reward and punishment in association to a behavior to encourage or discourage that behavior, both immediately and over time.
From a functional perspective, conditioning techniques enable users to be made aware of actions by means of feedback that serves as a conscious reminder.
Psychologically, conditioning is a subject of great interest among leading researchers into motivation (Maslov, B.F. Skinner), who have found that punishment and reward are associated with behavior even in lower orders of mammal, and that the effects of conditioning perpetuate even when the reward or punishment is withheld.
Computers use operant conditioning to effect behavioral changes. Even something as simple as the "chime" that indicates an error has been made alerts users to correct their behavior immediately and, over time, to adjust their actions to avoid having to hear the error chime.
Computer games are another arena in which operant condition is used: games that provide an ongoing series of small rewards tend to keep players engaged for longer periods of time than those that lack a system of scoring. The author also mentions the studies done in the gaming industry, particularly on slot machines, in which it was found that games that provide small rewards are irregular intervals engage players longer and generate more revenue than those that reward less frequently, even in larger amounts (EN: though in speaking with designers in the gaming industry, I learned that this is a matter of player choice: some prefer frequent small rewards, others are more motivated by more substantial ones).
While operant conditioning can be applied directly to simple behaviors, it is also possible to use conditioning to encourage more complex actions by breaking them down into smaller tasks and applying conditioning to each component action, or identifying the key behaviors among a number of supporting activities and seeking to reinforce those particular actions.
Naturally, the overt consequential relationship between action and reward, and the obvious contrivance of a system that is designed to condition the subject, raises ethical questions, especially when the subject is unaware of the conditioning, when the rewards given the subject are out of balance with the benefit derived by the conditioner, or when the conditioning is to such an extreme degree that it is considered to be an "addiction" that has negative consequences.
The Right Tool(s) for the Job
Research on motivation suggests that the more gentle the method of intervention, the greater the long-term results of persuasion (EN: the author does not define or detail what is meant by "gentle")
Also, the most effective persuasions employ more than a single tool or strategy. When analyzing persuasion, or when designing it, consider multiple vectors as well as the "natural synergies" of different approaches in the overall persuasive experience.