In my view, it will become important for most people designing end-user computingproducts to understand howprinciples of motivation and influence can be designed into Interactive experiences with Computers. As end-user computing matures, understanding captology may become as important as understanding usability.

When it comes to persuasion, computers not only have an advantage over traditional media. They also have six distinct advantages over human persuaders. Specifically, they can do the following:

1. Be more persistent than human beings
2. Offer greater anonymity
3. Manage huge volumes of data
4. Use many modalities to influence
5. Scale easily
6. Go where humans cannot go or may not be welcome

"Captologv" is the term that B.J. coined to capture the domain of research, design, and applications of persuasive Computers. It is an acronym for computers as persuasive technologies. I predict it soon will be coin of the realm for all those interested in how Interactive technologies can operate to change opinions, attitudes, and values and to affect the behavior of people—in short, for understanding how these new machines can change old minds in specific, predictable ways.