Data Analysis Shines Light on ‘Dark Patterns’ used by shopping sites.

Sidney Fussel, technology writer for The Atlantic describes how ’A team of Princeton researchers is cataloging these deceptive techniques, using data pulled from 11,000 shopping sites, to identify 15 ways sites subtly game our cognition to control us.’

’The research builds on the work of Harry Brignull, a London-based cognitive scientist who coined the term dark pattern in 2010, and the authors Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein, whose work on “nudges” explores how default options influence behavior.’

My favorite phrase from the article is ‘theater of numbers’ which describes tactics such as: ‘... scarcity bias: Put an item in your cart, and you’ll be served a message claiming “Only eight left in stock!” thereby urging you to buy immediately before the item is gone. But by analyzing webpages’ scripts and plug-ins, the researchers found that in many cases, these numbers are either generated randomly or set to decrease according to a schedule.’

Here is is the link:

The Endless, Invisible Persuasion Tactics of the Internet