"Don't Say That!" A Survey of Persuasive Systems in the Wild

Language use is a type of behavior not yet addressed by the academic persuasive technology community. Yet, many existing applications seek to change users' word choices or writing style. This paper catalogues 32 such applications in common usage or reported in the popular media. We use Schwartz's Theory of Basic Human Values to understand what motivates each attempt to persuade; we use the Persuasive Systems Design (PSD) model to understand contexts and techniques of persuasion. While motivations span the full range of human values, most applications serve values of Achievement, Conformity, or Universalism. Many are autogenous in intent, using reduction, suggestion, and self-monitoring strategies to support behavior change. However, the corpus also includes many endogenous applications that seek to change others' attitudes.