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A foundation for the study of behavior change support systems

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Abstract

The emerging ambient persuasive technology looks very promising for many areas of personal and ubiquitous computing. Persuasive applications aim at changing human attitudes or behavior through the power of software designs. This theory-creating article suggests the concept of a behavior change support system (BCSS), whether web-based, mobile, ubiquitous, or more traditional information system to be treated as the core of research into persuasion, influence, nudge, and coercion. This article provides a foundation for studying BCSSs, in which the key constructs are the O/C matrix and the PSD model. It will (1) introduce the archetypes of behavior change via BCSSs, (2) describe the design process for building persuasive BCSSs, and (3) exemplify research into BCSSs through the domain of health interventions. Recognizing the themes put forward in this article will help leverage the full potential of computing for producing behavioral changes.

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Notes

  1. It should be noted that even if we speak about behavioral changes, we do not posit a behaviorist or any mechanistic psychological view towards human beings. End-users may use these applications to support achieving their goals, maintaining a constructivist view (cf., the field of education) towards human behavior.

  2. For the sake of simplicity, we use the term “behavior” change rather than “behavioral” change even if the BCSS covers all three behavioral change types.

  3. Tørning and Oinas-Kukkonen [30] report some interesting findings about the current state of research on BCSSs. For instance, thus far there has been much more research on C- and B-Change than on A-Change; only about 16 % of studies in their analysis regarding the different types of change addressed A-Change.

  4. Persuasive technology can be described as an interdisciplinary field of research, whereas a BCSS is an object of study within the field. Affective computing [34] may be recognized as a sister-field of persuasive technology, or perhaps from the persuasive viewpoint as a sub-field of it, which more directly focuses on the emotions systems evoke. Sharp criticism of persuasive technology has been posed by Atkinson [35].

  5. Psychological theories tend to differ between each other in their views to and emphasis of P2, P3 and P4.

  6. Many of these persuasive features originate from Fogg [36].

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Acknowledgments

I wish to thank Academy of Finland and the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation for financially supporting this research, as well as all of my doctoral students for their help in my research endeavors over this topic.

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  1. Department of Information Processing Science, University of Oulu, Rakentajantie 3, 90570, Oulu, Finland

    Harri Oinas-Kukkonen

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Correspondence to Harri Oinas-Kukkonen.

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Oinas-Kukkonen, H. A foundation for the study of behavior change support systems. Pers Ubiquit Comput 17, 1223–1235 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-012-0591-5

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