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Online Persuasion in Facebook and Mixi: A Cross-Cultural Comparison

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Persuasive Technology (PERSUASIVE 2008)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 5033))

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Abstract

Social networking sites persuade millions of users each day to adopt specific behaviors. To understand this phenomenon in the context of persuasive technology, we analyzed how persuasion takes place in leading social networking sites from two different countries: Facebook in the U.S. and Mixi in Japan. We compared the two services on four persuasion goals: creating profile pages, inviting friends, responding to content by friends, and returning to the site often. Our analysis reveals the differences and similarities in how Facebook and Mixi are designed to influence users toward the achievement of these four goals. In general, Facebook’s persuasive design is more assertive and mechanistic, while Mixi’s approach, by comparison, is subtle and indirect. These persuasion styles seem to map generally to cultural differences between the U.S. and Japan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Stanford University, Cordura 122, Stanford, CA 94305

    B. J. Fogg & Daisuke Iizawa

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  1. B. J. Fogg
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  2. Daisuke Iizawa
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Harri Oinas-Kukkonen Per Hasle Marja Harjumaa Katarina Segerståhl Peter Øhrstrøm

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© 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Fogg, B.J., Iizawa, D. (2008). Online Persuasion in Facebook and Mixi: A Cross-Cultural Comparison. In: Oinas-Kukkonen, H., Hasle, P., Harjumaa, M., Segerståhl, K., Øhrstrøm, P. (eds) Persuasive Technology. PERSUASIVE 2008. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 5033. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-68504-3_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-68504-3_4

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-68500-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-68504-3

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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