Three approaches to ethical considerations in the design of behavior change support systems

Abstract Many ethical questions arise when developing persuasive systems. It has become evident that there is no silver bullet which would make it easy to resolve all ethical issues in all cases. This paper seeks to analyze and define potential ways to address ethical considerations in persuasive systems design. We suggest that there are three main approaches: a guideline-based approach, stakeholder analysis, and involving users. This paper helps to understand the strengths and weaknesses of these approaches when developing behavior change support systems, which, by their very nature, request deep engagement and commitment from their users. A pragmatic goal for this paper is to help designers choose an approach for their projects at hand