Captology is the science that studies how our screens are designed to persuade us. The term was coined by B.J. Fogg, who developed the theory at Stanford in the 1990s, before his research on website credibility in 1998, 1999 and 2002. Our screens never win us over by accident.
Where does the science that taught screens to persuade us come from?
Once a tool is unmasked, it stops playing social actor.
The word has a father and a precise birth certificate: B.J. Fogg, who coined "captology" from the English phrase "computers as persuasive technologies". The term refers to the study of interactive technologies designed to change our attitudes and behaviours: in other words, the art, now a discipline, of building machines that persuade us without ever asking outright.
The discipline was born in the 1990s, inside Fogg’s lab at Stanford, which began looking at website credibility as early as 1998, with the work continuing in 1999 and then 2002. In short, captology studies computing and digital technology as tools of influence and persuasion: our screens didn’t learn to win us over by chance (they were designed to do exactly that).
Can a computer really play several roles to influence us?
For researcher Fogg, a computer never plays just one role with us: it can present itself as a tool, as a medium, or as a social actor, and it’s this shifting between roles that gives it its persuasive power. Fogg calls this combination his “functional triad”, described in chapter 2 of his book Persuasive Technology.
Each of these three hats, he argues, draws on its own particular levers of persuasion: what convinces us when a machine is assisting us isn’t what convinces us when it’s informing us; and it’s something else again when it behaves almost like a conversation partner. A single screen can thus influence us in several ways at once, without our ever noticing.
Why do some sites inspire our trust without our knowing why?
In his 1999 and 2002 studies on website credibility, Fogg observed that trust grows when a site seems to recognise you and personalise what it shows you. That feeling of being seen, more than polished visuals, appears to be the real driver of trust online.
Yet Fogg himself sets a limit on this science of persuasion. He considers it more honourable to aim for accurate credibility, one that reflects a site's real worth, than for maximum credibility achieved at any cost. A nuance worth keeping in mind.
Does infinite scroll play on a very real fear?
Infinite scroll owes much to a clearly identified fear: the fear of missing out. An article in Cerveau & Psycho, published in March 2019, describes this mechanism, which some researchers attribute to social media, and notes that images have taken the place of narrative there. Pascal Boniface, however, urges some perspective: social media has also made it possible to get information in new ways and to question traditional media, provided one stays wary of amateurs and the fake news spread to manipulate.
Captology doesn’t stop at the screen. The same mechanisms are used, outside the digital world, for ends generally seen as more consensual: changing eating habits, encouraging physical activity, or helping people fight addictions such as tobacco and alcohol. Between manipulation and support, the line mostly comes down to the intent of whoever designs the tool, and the freedom it does, or doesn’t, leave to the person using it.
Knowing that our screens were designed, in one particular lab, to capture our attention doesn’t make them any less charming, nor does it make us any less responsible for our own time spent in front of them. The good news, if a lesson out of Stanford can be called that, is that recognising the mechanism already strips it of some of its power: a tool that’s been unmasked stops playing social actor. Next time a notification calls out to you like an impatient friend, you’ll know it was designed to do exactly that, and you’ll remain free not to answer right away.
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