BJ Fogg

Brian J. "B.J." Fogg is a behavioral psychologist and author. He is the founder and director of the Stanford Behavior Design Lab, formerly called the Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab.

Fogg was the first scientist to articulate the concept of "captology," or the study of how computers can persuade people. His 2003 book, "Persuasive Technology" lays the foundation for captology. In 2005, he renamed the concept to "Behavior Design," which comprises a set of models for understanding how human behavior works, as well as a set of methods he has created to help innovators create successful products.

As a doctoral student at Stanford University, Fogg used methods from experimental psychology to demonstrate that computers can change people's thoughts and behaviors in predictable ways.

In 1998, Fogg founded the Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab, now called the Stanford Behavior Design Lab. He directed the Stanford Web Credibility Project, which published "How Do People Evaluate a Web Site's Credibility?" in 2002. The lab received a grant from the National Science Foundation in 2005 to support experimental work investigating how mobile phones can motivate and persuade people, an area the lab calls "mobile persuasion."

In 2009, Fogg published the Fogg Behavior Model (FBM), a model for analyzing and designing human behavior. 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.

In December 2011, Fogg created a new way to develop permanent habits from baby steps, which he calls "Tiny Habits." In 2019, he released a book by the same name which outlines the method.