Beware Dark Patterns on the Web
Y
ou’re on the checkout page when
something appears in your shop-
ping basket that you didn’t put
there—say, you’re buying a laptop, but
insurance sneaks in, too, unless you
uncheck a box. Or you think you’re
signing up for a one-time deal or even
a free trial, but you’ve unintentionally
committed to a subscription with re-
curring fees.
Or maybe your relaxed online
browsing session takes on an air of
urgency because a countdown timer
tells you that a hot deal is about to
expire, or the site gives you an “almost
out of stock” warning.
Perhaps you succumb to a fear of
missing out after reading testimonials
(of unknown origin) or seeing periodic
messages that someone else (who
might not be real) just bought
the item you’re considering.
Not all of these “nudges”
are f lat-out deceptive. But
all are instances of dark
patterns, or website designs
meant to steer, coerce or
deceive people into mak-
ing unintended or poten-
tially disadvantageous
decisions.
Dark patterns
have been a topic
of discussion
among techies,
behavioral scien-
tists and market-
ers since 2010,
when British
cognitive scientist
Harry Brignull
coined the term.
His website, www
.darkpatterns.org,
serves as an infor-
mation clearing-
house and a darkpreviously undisclosed charge gets
added at the last minute because of a
bias known as the sunk-cost fallacy—
the feeling that we’ve invested too
much time, energy or money to turn
back. And something known as the
framing effect makes confirm shaming
a go-to dark pattern for some sites.
You’ve seen it when a shopping site
promises a discount in exchange for
your e-mail address. If you don’t want
to give it out, you’re forced to click on
something like “No thanks, I like pay-
ing full price.”
Once aware of dark patterns, we
tend to adapt. Some 65% of British
consumers in a recent survey pegged
instances of dark patterns on a hotel
booking site as the sales pressure they
are. But the frontiers keep expanding.
You’ll find dark patterns on mobile
apps, video games and social media
platforms, too. Congress has taken
notice: A bill introduced in the Senate
in April would empower the Federal
Trade Commission to crack down
on dark patterns.
“My bigger concern is how dark
patterns play out in other con-
texts,” says Colin Gray, an assis-
tant professor in the computer
graphics technology department
at Purdue University. “There’s a
whole new range of deceptive
practices that could be present in
non-screen-based dark patterns,”
he says, such as in smart-home speak-
ers and other devices. The best defense
is to cultivate your inner skeptic, says
Gray, when it comes to shopping online
and reading—yes, actually reading—
user agreements. “Realize that not ev-
eryone is acting with good intent, even
companies that we respect.” ■pattern Hall of Shame. A new study
from Princeton University researchers
documents how ubiquitous dark pat-
terns can be and explains why we fall
for them.15 ways to get snookered. Using a web
crawler, the Princeton researchers in-
vestigated more than 11,000 shopping
websites. They found 1,841 dark pat-
terns on more than 11% of the sites,
or more than 1,200 of them. The re-
searchers identified 15 patterns in
seven broad categories, including
sneaking, urgency and misdirection.
The more popular the website, the
more likely it was to feature dark pat-
terns. The most egregious examples,
deemed “deceptive” by the research-
ers, were relatively rare: only 234
instances on 183 websites. The
authors note, however, that
their limited study—for ex-
ample, they analyzed only
text (no images) and onlyon retail sites—no
doubt understates
the prevalence of
dark patterns.
We fall for the
trickery because
of innate cogni-
tive biases. We
might go ahead
with a transac-
tion even after aYOUR MIND AND YOUR MONEY Anne Kates Smith
ANNE KATES SMITH IS EXECUTIVE EDITOR OF KIPLINGER’S
PERSONAL FINANCE MAGAZINE. YOU CAN CONTACT HER AT
[email protected]. POON WATCHARA-AMPHAIWANMONEY CommentaryTHESE SITES ARE
DESIGNED TO STEER OR
COERCE PEOPLE INTO
MAKING UNINTENDED
DECISIONS.48