Trust in Persuasive Technologies: A Systematic Literature Review

Trust in persuasive technologies is increasingly acknowledged as essential for their adoption, effectiveness, and ethical design. Despite this recognition, current literature often relies on general theories of trust in technology, failing to address the unique aspects of persuasive technologies designed to influence human behavior. This gap in structured knowledge highlights the need for a systematic literature review in this area. This systematic literature review investigates factors influencing trust through the analysis of 541 records from IEEE Xplore, ACM Digital Library, Scopus, and Web of Science and finally incorporates 14 relevant studies. Key findings highlight emotional engagement, system accuracy, and reliability as critical factors shaping users' perceptions and interactions. However, a notable gap persists: insufficient explicit experimentation and analysis focused on trust within persuasive technology contexts. Future research should systematically explore and validate strategies for building trust tailored to these technologies. Enhancing trust not only promotes effectiveness in achieving behavioral change goals but also ensures user confidence and upholds ethical standards in implementation. This review contributes to advancing knowledge and guides future research efforts aimed at understanding and enhancing trust in persuasive technology.