Fogg Behavior Model (B=MAP)
B.J. Fogg, Stanford Persuasive Tech Lab, 2009
Behavior happens when Motivation, Ability, and a Prompt converge at the same moment.
In plain language
Three levers, one behavior. To get someone to act, they must be motivated to do the thing, capable of doing it without friction, and prompted at the right moment. Miss any of the three and behavior does not happen.
The framework explains why people don't exercise (high motivation, low ability, no prompt), why people click tempting links (high motivation, high ability, perfectly timed prompt), and why good AI outputs get ignored (adequate content, mismatched timing).
B=MAP was developed by B.J. Fogg at Stanford. It is the composition root for most modern behavior-change design, from health apps to e-commerce conversion funnels.
How Maxim applies it
- Every external-facing Maxim output passes a B=MAP audit before it ships. The behavioral-moat-drift hook scans outputs for: a named Motivation lever, a protected Ability lever (no friction), and a timed Prompt lever.
- When you run /mxm-cmo to compose marketing copy, Maxim maps the hero headline to Motivation, the CTA button to Ability (one click, clear label), and the trigger timing (scroll depth, exit intent) to Prompt.
- Outputs that fail any of the three levers get flagged with a 🟡 MEDIUM confidence tag and a Gap note: 'Motivation lever present, Ability adequate, Prompt timing not validated against your actual traffic data.'
What generic LLMs get wrong
Generic LLMs produce copy that 'sounds persuasive.' That usually means it hits Motivation with no check on Ability (buried CTA, multi-step conversion) or Prompt timing (placed where the reader isn't ready). Maxim names the three levers explicitly so you can audit each one.