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| BJ Fogg | |
|---|---|
| Name | BJ Fogg |
| Birth date | 1963 |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Behavior scientist; author; educator; entrepreneur |
| Alma mater | Stanford University; Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| Known for | Fogg Behavior Model; behavior design; Tiny Habits |
BJ Fogg BJ Fogg is an American behavior scientist, author, and founder of the Behavior Design Lab at Stanford University. He is known for developing the Fogg Behavior Model and the Tiny Habits method, and for influencing product design, persuasive technology, and behavior change initiatives across technology firms, healthcare organizations, and public policy programs.
Fogg was born in 1963 and studied psychology and design-related fields, earning degrees from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University. While at Stanford University, he engaged with researchers and centers connected to Human–computer interaction and affective computing that included collaborations with groups affiliated with Yahoo! Research and Xerox PARC. His formative training overlapped with contemporaries linked to MIT Media Lab, Apple Inc., and scholars who later worked at institutions such as University of California, Berkeley and Carnegie Mellon University.
Fogg founded the Behavior Design Lab at Stanford University and served as a research faculty member at Stanford University's Computer Science Department and the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (the d.school). He advised teams across technology companies including Google, Facebook, Microsoft, LinkedIn, Twitter, Airbnb, Uber, Snap Inc., and startups incubated at Y Combinator and 500 Startups. Fogg taught courses and workshops attended by professionals from IDEO, Frog Design, Accenture, McKinsey & Company, and Deloitte. He also consulted for healthcare organizations connected to Mayo Clinic, Kaiser Permanente, and public initiatives with partners tied to World Health Organization programs and municipal pilot projects in cities like San Francisco and New York City.
Fogg formulated the Fogg Behavior Model (FBM) to explain how Motivation, Ability, and Prompts interact to produce behavior, framing behavior design practice used by product teams at Google (including Google X), Microsoft Research, and Amazon. The FBM was presented at venues such as CHI (ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems), and influenced discourse at conferences like SXSW, TED, Web Summit, and workshops hosted by Interaction Design Association (IxDA). His work intersected with concepts and debates involving scholars and practitioners from Daniel Kahneman-influenced heuristics research, Richard Thaler's behavioral economics community, Nudge proponents at The Behavioural Insights Team, and habit research teams at University College London and Harvard University.
Fogg led projects in persuasive technology that connected to research themes at Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab and collaborations with corporate labs such as Microsoft Research Redmond and IBM Research. He launched the Tiny Habits program and coaching initiatives that partnered with organizations like Nike, Fitbit, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and academic partners at Johns Hopkins University and University of Pennsylvania. Fogg’s initiatives included workshops and accelerator-style programs run with partners from SXSW Interactive, TechCrunch Disrupt, and professional training networks including General Assembly and LinkedIn Learning.
Fogg authored the book Tiny Habits and produced numerous papers and teaching materials used in courses at Stanford University, presented at conferences such as CHI, Ubicomp (ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing), and published findings alongside scholars affiliated with MIT Media Lab and Carnegie Mellon University. His curricula and keynote lectures have been delivered at venues including TEDx, SXSW, Google I/O, Microsoft Build, and executive education programs at institutions like Harvard Business School and Stanford Graduate School of Business. He also trained cohorts of behavior designers who later worked at firms such as IDEO, Frog Design, and product teams across Silicon Valley companies.
Fogg’s influence spans product design, healthcare behavior change, and policy discussions; his methods informed teams at Google and Facebook and were debated in contexts involving ethics discussions at forums like AAAI and panels convened by Electronic Frontier Foundation and ACM SIGCHI. Critics have raised concerns similar to debates involving Shoshana Zuboff's critique of surveillance capitalism and ethical critiques voiced by commentators linked to The New York Times and Wired, arguing that persuasive design techniques can be used for manipulation as discussed in journalism from outlets like The Guardian and The Atlantic. Proponents cite outcomes from pilots reported in case studies connected to Mayo Clinic and Kaiser Permanente to defend the application of his models for public health and wellbeing. Fogg’s legacy is reflected in institutional adoption of behavior design practices at enterprises, academic courses at Stanford University and other universities, and ongoing debates spanning technology ethics, product regulation at bodies like Federal Trade Commission, and interdisciplinary research across psychology and computer science.
Category:American behavioral scientists