Have you ever noticed that while on the website of an online store with the clear purpose of buying a certain product, you ended up purchasing not only it, but also an additional bunch of completely unnecessary junk? I confess, honestly, it happened to me several times. It turns out that this is quite understandable from the point of view of science. Scientists from Princeton University (USA) have published the results of a new study, which shows how online shopping, using various tricks, makes us spend more money on purchases that we may not even need.
What are dark patterns?
A bit of terminology. In the online store environment, so-called "dark patterns" are often used - store design elements that the customer sees, whose task is reduced to one single goal - to make us do what we usually would not do. Agree, the temptation to buy a certain product, and even "at a 50 percent discount" in the last remaining 5 minutes on the timer directed into your eyes, becomes somewhat higher. This is one of the examples of these "dark patterns".
The researchers decided to dig deeper and analyzed more than 10,000 different online stores (there are many more in the world). It turned out that more than 1,200 stores in the sample use similar tricks to get a potential buyer to buy a product or at least spend more time on their website.
Why do people buy goods online?
As a rule, a provocative text serves as the main means of manipulating a person. For example, instead of the "cancel order" button, the same online food delivery stores often write something like "no, thanks, I don't like tasty food."
Promotional video:
In total, the study identified 15 ways in which online retailers manipulate and force people to part with their money. For example, some make it difficult for a person to refuse a purchase in various ways, others try to tease people, to shame when they decide to leave the store (“ah, you don’t want an iPhone, what will your friends say to that?”). Another rather popular method is “fake” (fake) buyers who comment on and praise this or that product, thereby increasing interest in it from already real people. All this puts a lot of pressure on our subconscious, which quietly begins to whisper to us: "can you still buy?" Everyone, you're on the hook. The effect has been achieved.
Researchers have also found that many online retailers turn to specialist firms to develop less intrusive and at the same time more effective persuasion methods. Many of them do not hesitate to advertise themselves openly.
Interviewed colleagues "in the shop". Opinions, as it turned out, were divided.
What conclusion can be drawn from all this? The only advice here can only be - be careful and do not let yourself be fooled.
Nikolay Khizhnyak