Fogg Behaviour Model and Trigger Framework

The Fogg Behavior Model characterizes behavior as a result of three factors: motivation, ability, and triggers.

Naturally, a person with greater motivation to complete a given task is more likely to complete it. The core motivators are sensation (pleasure and pain), anticipation (hope and fear), and social cohesion (acceptance and rejection). Increasing the pleasure, hope, and social acceptance or decreasing the pain, fear, and rejection associated with a task increases motivation towards it.

Ability refers to a person’s capability of performing a task. There are two way of increasing ability: training and simplifying. Training new skills may require a lot of effort and can be hard to accomplish, but sometimes it’s the only way to overcome obstacles. Where possible, Fogg prefers simplifying. By removing obstacles altogether and making the task easier to do, training isn’t necessary. He describes six components to simplicity—time, money, physical effort, brain cycles, social deviance, and non-routine. By making the task quicker or cognitively easier to understand, for example, the person’s ability to perform the task is higher. Notably, a task can also be made to appear simple by managing the user’s expectations. Fogg says, “A task is perceived as simple if a person completes it with fewer resources than expected.”

Lastly, triggers are prompts to cue the task. Depending on the situation, the trigger may have slightly different functions. When motivation is high, but ability is low, Fogg suggests a facilitator trigger to make the behavior easier. When motivation is low, but ability is high, he suggests a spark trigger to motivate. When both motivation and ability are high, a signal trigger provides a simple reminder. “Sometimes a Trigger can be external,” Fogg writes, “like an alarm sounding. Other times, the Trigger can come from our daily routine: Walking through the kitchen may trigger us to open the fridge.”

In order for a behavior to occur all three elements must converge at the same time. In short, someone needs to want to do it, have the ability to do it, and be reminded to do it. By the same token, if a behavior does not happen, it’s because one of those elements is absent.

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