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Covert Persuasive Technologies: Bringing Subliminal Cues to Human-Computer Interaction

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Persuasive Technology (PERSUASIVE 2014)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 8462))

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Abstract

The capability of machines to covertly persuade humans is both exciting and ethically concerning. In the present study we aim to bring subliminal masked stimulus paradigms to realistic environments, through Virtual Environments. The goal is to test if such paradigms are applicable to realistic setups while identifying the major challenges when doing so. We designed a study in which the user performed a realistic selection task in a virtual kitchen. For trials below one-second reaction time, we report significant effect of subliminal cues on the selection behavior. We conclude the study with a discussion of the challenges of bringing subliminal cueing paradigms to realistic HCI setups. Ethical concerns when designing covertly persuasive systems are discussed as well.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Helsinki Institute for Information Technology (HIIT), Department of Computer Science, University of Helsinki, Finland

    Oswald Barral, Imtiaj Ahmed & Giulio Jacucci

  2. School of Computing, Teesside University, UK

    Gabor Aranyi, Alan Lindsay, David Pizzi & Marc Cavazza

  3. Laboratoire de Sciences Cognitives et Psycholinguistique (LSCP), École Normale Supérieure, France

    Sid Kouider & Hielke Prins

  4. Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Italy

    Paolo Negri & Luciano Gamberini

Authors
  1. Oswald Barral
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  2. Gabor Aranyi
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  3. Sid Kouider
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  4. Alan Lindsay
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  5. Hielke Prins
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  6. Imtiaj Ahmed
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  7. Giulio Jacucci
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  8. Paolo Negri
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  9. Luciano Gamberini
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  10. David Pizzi
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  11. Marc Cavazza
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Human Technology Lab, Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Via Venezia, 8, 35131, Padova, Italy

    Anna Spagnolli

  2. Human-Computer Interaction Lab, University of Udine, via delle Scienze 206, 33100, Udine, Italy

    Luca Chittaro

  3. Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Italy

    Luciano Gamberini

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Barral, O. et al. (2014). Covert Persuasive Technologies: Bringing Subliminal Cues to Human-Computer Interaction. In: Spagnolli, A., Chittaro, L., Gamberini, L. (eds) Persuasive Technology. PERSUASIVE 2014. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 8462. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07127-5_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07127-5_1

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-07126-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-07127-5

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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