Online shopping sites have change the way we spend money. By clicking here and there, we can easily shop for something, even something we may not need. Moreover, big shopping sites are competing to offer promos, discounts, cashback, and various other tempting offers. But have you ever regret buying things you didn’t need on the internet?
Research on online shopping
According to a recently release study, the extravagance may not be your fault, but the shopping sites that have manipulate you. A recently release study by Princeton University researchers found that many shopping sites use the “dark pattern” technique.
This technique aims to force you to make bad decisions and buy things you don’t need. Gunes Acar, the Princeton researcher who assist with the study, told Business Insider, showing the timer and writing that ‘You only have five minutes, creating the most unquestionable sense of urgency.
To investigate this, Acar and his colleagues create a tool to explore 10,000 e-commerce sites. Of the 10,000 sites, more than 1,200 of them were found using dark text-base patterns.
It should be note that the number of sites the researchers found is still far below the actual figure. This is because the study only focuses on text and retail sites. While manipulative designs and other sites, such as travel and social media sites, have not been consider.
The researchers then categorize the techniques used into 15 types, such as making it difficult for shoppers to cancel purchases, shaming shoppers .When they want to leave the site (such as changing the cancel button to “No thanks, I don’t like good food”) and creating fake testimonials.
Research The New York Times
Furthermore, when The New York Times attempt to replicate the study results. They found that some sites even intentionally make the product you see appear to be purchased by someone else. The existence of these fake buyers, writes The New York Times, was created to create social pressure that will force you to buy.
Arvind Narayanan, professor of computer science at Princeton and author of the study. The New York Times that messages indicating that an item is being hunted by many people may not be a dark pattern if they are true.
However, it is also an attempt to manipulate consumer weaknesses. “We are not claiming that everything we categorize in the report should be of concern to government policymakers.”
“But there should be transparency about it so that people who shop online are aware of how their behavior is directed,” he said. So do you still want to wash your eyes often on online shopping sites? Watch out for account balances that suddenly run out!
Image Source
