Benevolent Deception in Human Computer Interaction

Though it has been asserted that “good design is honest,” deception exists throughout human-computer interaction research and practice. Because of the stigma associated with deception—in many cases rightfully so—the research community has focused its energy on eradicating malicious deception, and ignored instances in which deception is positively employed. In this paper we present the notion of benevolent deception, deception aimed at benefitting the user as well as the developer. We frame our discussion using a criminology-inspired model and ground components in various examples. We assert that this provides us with a set of tools and principles that not only helps us with system and interface design, but that opens new research areas. After all, as Cockton claims in his 2004 paper “Value-Centered HCI”, “Traditional disciplines have delivered truth. The goal of HCI is to deliver value.”