Published on <a href="https://blog.prototypr.io/dark-patterns-entrapment-through-our-seven-deadly-sins-b61a7a2d67e?source=rss----eb297ea1161a---4">| Prototyping: From UX to Front End &mdash; Medium</a> Vicky Weng 
how purposefully designed interfaces use our innate temptations against us to dupe us into giving money from our pockets.
Designers are persuaders. Our field of work requires a strong understanding of the emotions that influence people’s behavior and decision-making. We act on psychological information to design compelling user interactions, and we work hard to control the behaviors of our users by persuading them to perform desired task(s) at hand.
We measure the amount of users clicks for the purposes of optimizing numbers. We discretely pick beautiful, accessible color palettes for websites to evoke certain emotions. We arrange content in the most logical of ways, manipulating the order by which we want users to intake information.
<img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/700/0*JnIfFt_02huqB2f4.jpg">
We uncover the natural patterns of human behavior, consider human foibles, and apply this knowledge in the digital realm, so that they can be exploited for financial gain.
This isn’t a new concept. After all, sales professionals, marketers, and even politicians use persuasive techniques all the time.
Sometimes overall intentions are good, and sometimes, intentions are “evil.”
<h3>Defining “Evil”</h3>
According to Steve Taylor, Ph.D and senior lecturer in psychology at Leeds Beckett University:
<blockquote>“‘Good’ means a lack of self-centredness. It means the ability to empathize with other people, to feel compassion for them, and to put their needs before your own.”</blockquote>
<blockquote>“‘Evil’ people are those who are unable to empathize with others. As a result, their own needs and desires are of paramount importance. They are selfish, self-absorbed and narcissistic.”</blockquote>
Steve Taylor’s views are seconded with Chris Nodder, a user researcher and interaction design specialist, who categorizes design into 4 groups.
<img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*UIvbcH6KIg1dE5VVnmk4pA.png">Diagram from “Evil By Design,” author Chris Nodder
<ol>
<li>Commercial design — equitable benefit to the designer and the user</li>
<li>Motivational design — benefits user even if they wouldn’t choose to do it unaided</li>
<li>Charitable design — benefits society more than the designer or single user,</li>
</ol>
and lastly,
4. Evil design — benefits the creator above all others
… when creators are getting significantly more out of the exchange than the user, when creators have only their own interests at heart, and when customers are emotionally and unwittingly duped into doing something that benefits the creator more than it does them.
<h3>The Dark Patterns</h3>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/500/0*deuODSrhsx7PsOns.gif">
Deceitful digital user interfaces are more widespread than you think, purposely manipulating design to produce seemingly harmless — but never-the-less unethical — outcomes for unsuspecting users.
They are the result of applying psychological principles to arrive at a disadvantaged experience. But by analyzing the beneficiary spectrum depicted above, and by better understanding dark patterns, carefully crafted elements are built to misdirect and confuse, we can we gain insight into the true motivations of the creator.
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Harry Birgnull, a London, UK-based independent user experience designer, and founder of <a href="https://darkpatterns.org/">Dark Patterns</a>, lists 11 ill-intent design tactics used to trick users.
Below is a listing, but each type is described in-depth on Birgnull’s site.
Bait and Switch | Disguised Ads | Forced Continuity | Friend Spam | Hidden Costs | Misdirection | Price Comparison Prevention | Privacy Zuckering | Roach Motel | Sneak into basket | Trick Questions
*We will dive deeper into 3 of these tactics (and how it relates to our temptations) after discussing the psychological principals of persuasive design.
<h3>Leveraging Human Fallibility</h3>
The Seven Deadly Sins: pride, greed, anger, sloth, envy, lust, and gluttony have become a compelling, disturbing and profound reflection of human weakness and fallibility.
<img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/715/0*GaD8K0-1XkgKI4E7.png">This wheel-like diagram is a visual classification of Robert Plutchik’s eight primary emotions, that in the past would have contributed to the survival of humans.
Well-known and widely expressed, the idea of sin is relevant even the field of psychology, where they are oftentimes recognized as cognitive emotions with evolutionary adaptive functions.
Why are we susceptible to certain persuasive techniques, and how do companies make us feel good about doing what they want?
The answer: By approaching persuasive design from a psychological vantage point.
A unifying theme underlying all the sins is insufficient self-control.
<blockquote>“Envy and pride propel us to seek status and resources.</blockquote>
<blockquote>Gluttony, lust and greed are related to the unconstrained consumption of food, sex and power.</blockquote>
<blockquote>Wrath ensues if our pursuit of any of these ends is thwarted or threatened.</blockquote>
<blockquote>And sloth is like the mirror-opposite of the other sins — a lack of motivation and drive.”</blockquote>
<blockquote>&#8211; The British Psychological Society</blockquote>
Likewise, Robert Plutchik’s, a psychologist who developed a psycho-evolutionary theory of emotion, proposed that emotions are biologically primitive, in-suppressible instincts evolved to increase the reproductive fitness of animals.
Thus, by understanding motivational and emotional theory, human fallibility can be leveraged to either 1. create powerful persuasive interfaces or 2. force users into doing something less than ideal.
<h3>A Persuasive Game With The Animal Within</h3>
Here are 3 examples of dark patterns and how our innate temptations are used against us by “evil” designers, forcing us into doing something less than ideal.
<h4>1. The Friend Spam</h4>
<ul>
<li>Friend Spam —You set out to do one thing, but a different, undesirable thing happens instead.</li>
<li>Pride — Using evolutionary foundation of human social status to position product in line with visitors’ values.</li>
</ul>
“As part of the sign-up process to Linkedin, they encourage you to give them access to your email account, on the premise that it will give “your career a strong network” (see below). The hidden agenda is that they want this access so they can secretly send invitation emails to all of your contacts, falsely claiming to be sent by you rather than by Linkedin.” (darkpatterns.org)
<img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/632/0*ghCSKGfywGwP3Cur.jpg">
<h4>2. The Hidden Cost</h4>
<ul>
<li>Hidden Costs — You get to the last step of the checkout process, only to discover some unexpected charges have appeared, e.g. delivery charges, tax, etc.</li>
<li>Sloth — build a path of least resistance that leads users where you want them to go.</li>
</ul>
“Finally when you get to the “review order” page — having entered the delivery name, address &amp; phone number, your credit card details, and your own name, address, phone number, credit card details — you’re finally shown the hidden costs. $14.99 delivery and $2.99 “care and handling”. (darkpatterns.org)
<img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/632/0*z46poQOG4XRcMTM4.jpg">
“By the time the hidden costs are revealed, you’ve already invested a great deal of effort and you’re likely to feel fatigued. This is probably by design, so you’ll be more willing to complete the purchase rather than have to give up and start all over again with another website.” (darkpatterns.org)
<h4>3. Forced Continuity</h4>
<ul>
<li>Forced Continuity — When your free trial with a service comes to an end and your credit card silently starts getting charged without any warning. In some cases this is made even worse by making it difficult to cancel the membership.</li>
<li>Gluttony — escalate customers’ commitment and use loss aversion to keep them there</li>
</ul>
“When you click the continue button, you’re taken to another site (one-time-offer.com), which tries to convince you to sign up for a £20 money-off voucher.”
<img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/632/0*Smx4w_ARuv8vJWmA.jpg">
“If you sign up to this service, you are enrolled into a £15 a month subscription which continues forever.” (darkpatterns.org).
<h4>Conclusion</h4>
Although I’ve only described 3 cases (I wanted to maintain brevity), there are numerous other persuasive techniques that tap into human fallibility. Can you think of any additional examples?
<img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/900/0*AcTfSN0o3bUufkQP.jpg">
… And before I completely end this article, I like to make one more point.
In this article, “evil” was pre-defined for the sake of simplicity, but — just like beauty — “evil” is often-times in the eye of the beholder. It all depends on individual perspective and circumstance.
It is a philosophical topic, so complex in fact, that it is far beyond the scope of this article. Philosophers, sociologists, and psychologists have been studying it for hundreds of years!
“The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either — but right through every human heart — and through all human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us, it oscillates with the years. And even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained.”
— Alexander Solzhenitsyn, sociologist and historian
<h3>Resources</h3>
<ol>
<li><a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/out-the-darkness/201308/the-real-meaning-good-and-evil">https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/out-the-darkness/201308/the-real-meaning-good-and-evil</a></li>
<li><a href="https://study.com/academy/lesson/robert-plutchiks-wheel-of-emotions-lesson-quiz.html">https://study.com/academy/lesson/robert-plutchiks-wheel-of-emotions-lesson-quiz.html</a></li>
<li><a href="https://darkpatterns.org/">https://darkpatterns.org/</a></li>
<li><a href="https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/volume-24/edition-2/deadly-sins">https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/volume-24/edition-2/deadly-sins</a></li>
</ol>
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Dark Patterns: Entrapment Through Our Seven Deadly Sins

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