With full registration, award-winning papers, and a field that is obviously struggling with its own momentum, the twenty-first edition of the world’s premier persuasive technology gathering arrived in Hakodate.
Arriving in Hakodate in early March has a unique quality. The city is located at the base of Hokkaido, the northernmost main island of Japan. At that time of year, the harbor below is bright and cold, while the surrounding hills still have patches of snow. Old Western-style structures, such as red-brick warehouses, a Russian Orthodox church with green onion domes, and a morning fish market that opens before dawn, line the streets surrounding the port. Hakodate was one of the first Japanese cities to open to foreign trade. Situated on a hill above all of this, Future University Hakodate, the host institution for PERSUASIVE 2026, has views that make the name feel less like ambition and more like a clear indication of where things are going.
According to the numbers, the 21st International Conference on Persuasive Technology was a success. Twenty nations from five continents sent researchers. The fact that registration closed at full capacity prior to the event’s start speaks to the field’s current momentum or possibly the anxiety that draws people to it. Thirty-three papers were published in Springer’s Lecture Notes in Computer Science series in the main proceedings alone. From sixty-nine submissions, a total of fifty-seven papers covering everything from the psychology of commute route selection to personalized interventions based on reinforcement learning were included in the satellite events volume. The final one, “Reconsider Today’s Commute,” a poster and demo runner-up, is the kind of subtly useful research that often gets overlooked next to the more significant theoretical arguments. However, the fact that someone is applying persuasion science to something as commonplace and unyielding as a morning drive feels symbolic of how far the field has come.
This year’s best paper awards went in two different directions at the same time, which is noteworthy in and of itself. Value-sensitive design in medical informed consent, particularly with regard to eye donation, was the subject of one winning paper. The other was a thorough empirical investigation of dark patterns, measuring their perceived intrusiveness and what researchers now refer to as their “darkness.” Both require a lot of effort. However, they are at almost opposite ends of the ethical spectrum: one asks how technology can make difficult human decisions more truthful and informed, while the other meticulously documents how digital interfaces are made to work against their users. The fact that both were recognized in the same ceremony by the same conference is either a testament to the field’s impressive diversity or a reflection of the real tension that exists within it. Most likely both.
Once more, the runner-up awards went in a different direction. When the field wants to explain why any of this matters, it looks to HyperCare, an AI-driven personalized system for ongoing hypertension management created by a team that included Rita Orji, one of the most cited researchers in this field. Millions of people have poor chronic condition management, not because they don’t know enough, but because it’s really difficult to change behavior without the proper kind of ongoing, contextual support. The fact that researchers from several institutions in Canada and Africa co-authored the paper provides insight into the direction that applied persuasion research will take in the future.
It’s difficult to watch this conference without being drawn in by two opposing viewpoints. It can be interpreted as a group of genuinely thoughtful individuals working on worthwhile projects, such as researching ways to help people manage their health, lessen their environmental impact, and make better choices under pressure. The other interprets it as a field that, after twenty-one years, is still attempting to draw moral boundaries that are constantly shifting due to factors well beyond its control. It is not ironic that the dark patterns paper won the best award. However, it is suggestive. The conference is examining the same toolkit from both perspectives, developing it, evaluating it, and attempting to determine which hands it should ultimately fall into.
Spain’s Santiago de Compostela will host the upcoming edition. Another city with a rich history and a reputation for attracting people who have traveled far to get somewhere and carefully consider their beliefs. Right now, that seems almost intentional.
