B. J. Fogg
American social scientist (born 1963)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Brian Jeffrey Fogg (born August 7, 1963) is an American social scientist and author who is a research associate[1] and adjunct professor[2] at Stanford University. He is the founder and director of the Stanford Behavior Design Lab, formerly known as the Persuasive Technology Lab.[3][4]
B. J. Fogg | |
|---|---|
Fogg in 2017 | |
| Born | Brian Jeffrey Fogg August 7, 1963 Dallas, Texas, U.S. |
| Alma mater | |
| Known for | |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Captology |
| Institutions | Stanford University |
| Thesis | Charismatic computers (1997) |
| Website | www |
Education
Fogg was born in 1963 in Dallas.[5] He later grew up in Fresno, California, where he was raised in a Mormon family with six siblings. At the age of eighteen, Fogg went to Peru for a two-year mission.[6][7] Fogg has a Bachelor of Arts[8] and Master of Arts in English from Brigham Young University.[9] He earned a second Masters[10] and a PhD in Communications from Stanford,[11] where he served as a teaching assistant to Philip Zimbardo.[12]
Career
In 1986, Fogg was one of the founders of the Student Review, an independent student newspaper at Brigham Young University,[13] and in 1992-1993 taught English and design at BYU.[14] While at BYU, Fogg published eight short stories and poems in Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought;[14][15][16] Sunstone, "a quarterly journal of Mormon experience, scholarship, issues, and art";[17][18] and other Mormon-affiliated publications.[19] His Masters thesis, "Terms of Address Among Latter-Day Saints"[20] and "Names Mormons Use for Jesus: Contexts and Trends"[21] were both published by the Deseret Language and Linguistics Society Symposium in February 1990 and March 1991, respectively.
In 1998, Fogg published a peer-reviewed paper, Persuasive Computers: Perspectives and Research Directions, which included a section that "proposes ethical responsibilities for designers of persuasive computers and captology researchers, and discusses the importance of educating about persuasion."[22]
In 1999, he was the guest editor for an issue of ACM focusing on persuasive technologies.[23]
In 2003, Fogg published the book, Persuasive Technology: Using Computers to Change What We Think and Do. This book provided a foundation for captology, the study of computers as persuasive technologies. In it, he discusses the implications of macrosuasion and microsuasion—terms he uses to define and describe the persuasive intent of a product, providing examples across the web, in video games, and other software products.[24]
In 2006, Fogg and some of his students created a video for consideration by the FTC about persuasive technology.[25]
In 2007, Fogg co-taught a Stanford course about Facebook Apps with Dave McClure, where students used persuasive design to create Facebook apps that amassed millions of users during the 10-week course.[26] The New York Times quoted Fogg as referring to it as "a period of time when you could walk in and collect gold."[27]
In 2009, Fogg's interests gradually shifted from persuasive technology to general human behavior.[28][non-primary source needed] He published the Fogg Behavior Model (FBM), a model for analyzing and designing human behavior.[29] The FBM describes three conditions needed for a behavior to occur: (1) motivation (2) ability and (3) a prompt. Motivation can be influenced by factors like pleasure/pain, hope/fear, and social acceptance/rejection. Ability can be impacted by time, money, physical effort, brain cycles, social deviance, and non-routine. Prompts are also referred to as triggers.[30]
In December 2011, Fogg developed a method to develop habits from baby steps, which he calls "Tiny Habits".[31] He gave two TEDx talks on this and related topics.[32][33]
He was the founder and director of Stanford's Mobile Health conference (2008–2012).[34]
In 2020, Fogg published the book Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything, which describes in detail the "Tiny Habits" method of starting small when building sustainable habits to support a happier and healthier life.[35] This book was on The New York Times Best Sellers List—under Advice, How-To & Miscellaneous—for three weeks.[36]
Personal life
Fogg lives in Healdsburg, California[37][non-primary source needed] and Maui.[38][39]
Notable students
- Ramit Sethi, founder of GrowthLab.com and co-founder of PBworks[40]
- Mike Krieger, co-founder of Instagram[41]
- Tristan Harris, co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology[42]
Bibliography
- Persuasive Technology (2003)
- Mobile Persuasion (with Dean Eckles; 2008)
- Texting 4 Health (with Richard Adler; 2009)
- Facebook For Parents (with Linda Fogg Phillips; 2010)
- Tiny Habits (2020)