Dark Patterns: Past, Present, and Future

Dark patterns are user interfaces that benefit online services by leading users into making decisions they might not otherwise make.
These patterns can deceive, manipulate, or coerce users into choices not in their best interests.
Examples:
- TurboTax hiding its free tax-file program for low-income users to push them to use the paid program.
- Facebook using phone numbers entered for two-factor authentication to serve targeted ads.
- Match.com using fake messages to encourage users to sign up for paid services.
Deceptive countdown timers are a common tactic on shopping websites, with one study finding them on 140 sites.
Research community efforts:
- Cataloging problematic patterns like nagging, obstructing tasks, and privacy-intrusive defaults.
- Explaining how dark patterns exploit cognitive biases.
- Identifying dark patterns on over 1,200 shopping websites.
- Finding dark patterns in over 95% of popular Android apps.
- Providing evidence that dark patterns effectively manipulate user behavior.
Dark patterns result from trends in retail (deceptive practices), research/public policy (nudging), and design (growth hacking).
Understanding these trends is essential to appreciate the novelty and effectiveness of dark patterns and to combat them.

The retail industry has a history of deceptive and manipulative practices.
These practices range from normalized to unlawful.
Psychological pricing (e.g., pricing items slightly below a round number) is a normalized technique that remains effective because consumers underestimate prices when relying on memory.
False claims of store closings are unlawful but rarely enforced.
Bait-and-switch tactics, such as misleading car ads, are also used.

In the 1970s, behavioral economics literature sought to understand irrational decisions.
Researchers identified cognitive shortcuts that make irrational behaviors predictable.
Anchoring effect: People's estimates are influenced by arbitrary reference points.
- Example: Willingness to pay for a bottle of wine varied based on an arbitrary two-digit number (last two digits of social security number).
- The study found the willingness to pay varied by approximately threefold based on the arbitrary number.
Businesses can nudge customers to pay higher prices by anchoring their expectations to a high number.
Initial research focused on understanding rather than intervention.