B. J. Fogg

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]

From 1992 to 1993, Fogg was "one of the founders of the Student Review, Brigham Young University's independent student newspaper" and "taught English and design at BYU."[13] 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,[26] where students used persuasive design to create Facebook apps that amassed millions of users during the 10-week course.[27] The New York Times quoted Fogg as referring to it as "a period of time when you could walk in and collect gold."[28]

In 2009, Fogg's interests gradually shifted from persuasive technology to general human behavior.[29] He published the Fogg Behavior Model (FBM), a model for analyzing and designing human behavior.[30] 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.[31]

In December 2011, Fogg developed a method to develop habits from baby steps, which he calls "Tiny Habits".[32] He gave two TEDx talks on this and related topics.[33][34]

He was the founder and director of Stanford's Mobile Health conference (2008–2012).[35]

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.[36] This book was on The New York Times Best Sellers List—under Advice, How-To & Miscellaneous—for three weeks.[37]

Fogg lives in Healdsburg, California[38] and Maui.[39]

• 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]

• 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)

• Official website