Editing Persuasive technology (section)

== Persuasive strategies ==
Halko and Kientz made an extensive search in the literature for persuasive strategies and methods used in the field of psychology to modify health-related behaviors.{{sfn|Halko|Kientz|2010}} Their search concluded that there are eight main types of persuasive strategies, which can be grouped into the following four categories, where each category has two complementary approaches.

=== Instruction style ===

====Authoritative====
This persuades the technology user through an authoritative agent, for example, a strict personal trainer who instructs the user to perform the task that will meet their goal.{{citation needed|date=August 2021}}

====Non-authoritative====
This persuades the user through a neutral agent, for example, a friend who encourages the user to meet their goals. Another example of instruction style is customer reviews; a mix of positive and negative reviews together give a neutral perspective on a product or service.{{sfn|Wixom|Todd|2005}}

=== Social feedback ===

====Cooperative====
This persuades the user through the notion of cooperating and teamwork, such as allowing the user to team up with friends to complete their goals.{{citation needed|date=August 2021}}

====Competitive====
This persuades the user through the notion of competing. For example, users can play against friends or peers and be motivated to achieve their goal by winning the competition.{{citation needed|date=August 2021}}

===Motivation type ===

====Extrinsic====
This persuades the user through external motivators, for example, winning a trophy as a reward for completing a task.{{citation needed|date=August 2021}}

====Intrinsic====
This persuades the user through internal motivators, such as the good feeling a user would have for being healthy or for achieving a goal.{{citation needed|date=August 2021}}

It is worth noting that intrinsic motivators can be subject to the overjustification <ref>{{Cite web|url=https://dictionary.apa.org/overjustification-effect|title=APA Dictionary of Psychology}}</ref> effect, which states if intrinsic motivators are associated with a reward and you remove the reward then the intrinsic motivation tends to diminish. This is because depending on how the reward is seen, it can become linked to extrinsic motivations instead of intrinsic motivations. Badges, prizes, and other award systems will increase intrinsic motivation if they are seen as reflecting competence and merit.

In 1973, Lepper et al. conducted a foundational study that underscored the overjustification effect.<ref>Greene, David, and Mark R. Lepper. “Effects of Extrinsic Rewards on Children’s Subsequent Intrinsic Interest.” Child Development, vol. 45, no. 4, [Wiley, Society for Research in Child Development], 1974, pp. 1141–45, https://doi.org/10.2307/1128110.</ref> Their team brought magic markers to a preschool and created three test groups of children who were intrinsically motivated. The first group were informed that if they used markers they could receive a “Good Player Award.” The second group was not incentivized to use the magic markers with a reward, but were given a reward after playing. The third group was given no expectations about awards and received no awards. A week later, all students played with the markers without a reward. The students receiving the "good player" award originally showed half as much interest as when they began the study. Later, other psychologists repeated this experiment only to conclude that rewards create short-term motivation, but undermine intrinsic motivation.

===Reinforcement type ===

====Negative reinforcement====
This persuades the user by removing an unpleasant stimulus. For example, a brown and dying nature scene might turn green and healthy as the user practises more healthy behaviors.{{citation needed|date=August 2021}}

====Positive reinforcement====
This persuades the user by adding a positive stimulus. For example, adding flowers, butterflies, and other nice-looking elements to an empty nature scene as a user practises more healthy behaviors.{{citation needed|date=August 2021}}

====Logical Fallacies====

More recently, [[Antonio Lieto|Lieto]] and Vernero{{sfn|Lieto|Vernero|2013}}{{sfn|Lieto|Vernero|2014}} have also shown that arguments reducible to [[logical fallacies]] are a class of widely adopted persuasive techniques in both web and mobile technologies. These techniques have also shown their efficacy in large-scale studies about persuasive news recommendations{{sfn|Gena|Grillo|Lieto|Mattutino|2019}} as well as in the field of human-robot interaction.{{sfn|Augello|Città|Gentile|Lieto|2021}} A 2021 report by the [[RAND Corporation]] {{sfn|Matthews|Demus|Treyger|Posard|2021}} shows how the use of logical fallacies is one of the rhetorical strategies used by the Russia and its agents to influence the online discourse and spread subversive information in Europe.