If you want to design a high-tech product, you’ll need some engineers. To increase your odds of the product’s success, you may also need psychologists. “Big tech now employs mental-health experts to use persuasive technology, a new field of research that looks at how computers can change the way humans think and act,” writes Chavie Lieber at Vox. “This technique, also known as persuasive design, is built into thousands of games and apps, and companies like Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft rely on it to encourage specific human behavior starting from a very young age.” She adds, “Kids have 10 times the amount of screen time they did in 2011…according to Common Sense Media.”
Persuasive design’s defenders say it can help people lose weight or take their medicines on time, Lieber reports, but critics believe it exploits children, in particular, for profit.
The critics include 50 psychologists who on August 8 sent a letter to the American Psychological Association, urging the organization to take a stand on the issue.
“We are writing…to call attention to the unethical practice of psychologists using hidden manipulation techniques to hook children on social media and video games,” the letter begins. “These techniques—employed without children’s or their parents’ knowledge or consent—increase kids’ overuse of digital devices, resulting in risks to their health and well-being. In recent months, leading tech executives have spoken out against these practices, focusing their concern on the exploitation of human psychological vulnerabilities for profit. However, the APA, which is tasked with protecting children and families from harmful psychological practices, has not yet made a statement on the matter.”
One of the cosigners of the letter, sent on behalf of the nonprofit Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, is Richard Freed, a child and adolescent psychologist and the author of Wired Child: Reclaiming Childhood in a Digital Age. He discusses the history of persuasive design, how it works, and what should be done about it in an interview with Lieber here.
