The article is entirely based on Fogg's behavior model. Your criticism isn't really addressing the article, it's addressing the model used. As for pain avoidanc

The article is entirely based on Fogg's behavior model. Your criticism isn't really addressing the article, it's addressing the model used. As for pain avoidance, that seems to be a part of the factor Motivation, which is divided into the sub-factors Sensation, Anticipation and Social Cohesion. I've found a number of sites explaining the model and they all have something like this to say about Sensation: > Searching to experience pleasure or avoiding pain. These strong motivators are thought to be a primitive and immediate response to information. I can't find an official source for it, so I have to assume it's in Fogg's book. But it seems pain avoidance is something that is addressed by the model. Some relevant links: https://blog.crobox.com/article/fogg-behavior-model https://blog.crobox.com/article/fogg-behavior-model https://www.buzzstream.com/blog/the-psychology-of-behavior-change-a-guide-for-link-development-professionals.html https://www.buzzstream.com/blog/the-psychology-of-behavior-c... https://mariashriver.com/stanford-researcher-bj-fogg-on-the-tiny-habits-that-lead-to-big-breakthroughs/ https://mariashriver.com/stanford-researcher-bj-fogg-on-the-... https://lifehacker.com/how-to-stop-procrastinating-with-behavior-scientist-bj-1842027698 https://lifehacker.com/how-to-stop-procrastinating-with-beha... As for Fogg, he seems to be a research associate at Stanford and founded the Behavior Design Lab. How much weight that carries, no idea. https://behaviordesign.stanford.edu/ https://behaviordesign.stanford.edu/ edit: I think I found the paper where FBM is from http://captology.stanford.edu/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Behavior-Model-for-Persuasive-Design.pdf http://captology.stanford.edu/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Beh... (found through https://behaviordesign.stanford.edu/fogg-behavior-model https://behaviordesign.stanford.edu/fogg-behavior-model)