Dark patterns in online shopping: do they work and can nudges help mitigate impulse buying?

• Published in: Behavioural Public Policy Vol. 9; no. 1; pp. 61 - 87
• Main Authors: Sin, Ray, Harris, Ted, Nilsson, Simon, Beck, Talia
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge Cambridge University Press 01.01.2025
• Subjects: Consent; Consumer behavior; Costs; Electronic commerce; Impulse buying; Impulsivity; Pandemics; Purchase intention; Shopping; Sludge; Social norms
• ISSN: 2398-063X; 2398-0648
• DOI: 10.1017/bpp.2022.11

Dark patterns – design interfaces or features that subtly manipulate people in making suboptimal decisions – are ubiquitous especially in e-commerce websites. Yet, there is little research on the effectiveness of dark patterns, and even lesser studies on testing interventions that can help mitigate their influence on consumers. To that end, we conducted two experiments. The first experiment tests the effectiveness of different dark patterns within a hypothetical single product online shopping context. Results show that, indeed, dark patterns increase the purchase impulsivity across all dark patterns, relative to the control. The second experiment tests the effectiveness of three behaviorally informed interventions on four different dark patterns also in a hypothetical online shopping scenario, but this time offering multiple products instead of a single product. Between-subject analysis shows that not all interventions are equally effective, with uneven impact across dark patterns. However, within-subject results indicate that all interventions significantly reduce purchase impulsivity pre- versus post-intervention, indicating that any intervention is better than none when it comes to combating dark patterns. We then end by discussing the policy implications of our results.