Dark Patterns: How Apps and Shops Manipulate Us

You know the scene: in a trainer shop’s app, “Only 2 left in stock!” flashes beside the pair you want, while a timer counts down above it. A flight-booking website says “Only 3 seats left at this price”, and a popular mobile game reminds you: “Play today or lose your streak!” Three different apps – all with the same aim: to make you act now, without thinking.

These features are called dark patterns: interfaces deliberately designed to make you do things that mainly benefit the provider – buy sooner, agree to more, stay longer, cancel later. The British designer Harry Brignull has been collecting examples of these tricks since 2010 and coined the term.

Two points to start with, to keep this module down to earth:

• Dark patterns are not a secret plot by sinister forces. They result from ordinary business practices: shops and apps constantly test different designs against each other – and keep whatever brings in more revenue. Manipulation can creep in step by step, without anyone ever using the word “manipulation”.
• Not every advert is a dark pattern. Advertising openly says: “Buy me!” A dark pattern steers you covertly – it reshapes the situation so that the provider’s preferred choice is the easiest one.

The aim here is not to spoil shopping or gaming for you. It is to help you recognise the patterns – because once you recognise them, you can make your own decisions again.

These are the six tricks you will most often encounter in online shops, on booking websites and in apps – you will see the same numbers in the picture below:

1. Countdown timer: “Offer ends in 09:58!” A clock counting down creates time pressure. Often, the deadline is just for show: the price stays the same afterwards – or the next countdown starts.
2. Artificial scarcity: “Only 2 left in stock!”, “Only 1 room left at this price!” You cannot check these claims from the outside – but the fear of missing out works all the same.
3. Pre-ticked boxes: Newsletters, extra insurance, donations – the box is already ticked, and if you do not look carefully, you sign up for them too. The trick relies on you taking the easy option.
4. Subscription trap (making cancellation difficult): Signing up takes two clicks; cancelling requires a phone call, a letter or a search through layers of menus. The harder it is to leave, the longer you keep paying.
5. Hidden costs: The item costs CHF 89.90 – but delivery and a “service fee” are added at the final checkout step. Just when you have already made up your mind to buy.
6. Confirmshaming: The yes button is big and colourful; the option to decline is small, grey – and worded to make you feel ashamed: “No thanks, I’d rather pay too much.” Saying no is meant to make you feel foolish.

Now take a look at the picture: a single, fictional checkout screen – with all six patterns at once.

Games sell things too – often more skilfully than any shop. Many mobile games are free to play and only make their money inside the game. You should know these four mechanics:

• Loot boxes: You buy a box with real money – chance decides what is inside. Usually it is worthless little items; rarely, something desirable. That feeling of “I nearly won!” is exactly how gambling machines work – which is why loot boxes are considered similar to gambling, even though they appear in games for all ages.
• In-app purchases: CHF 2 for crystals here, CHF 5 for a booster there. Each amount is tiny; you only see the total on your bill – you know why from “Personal finance II: debt traps and digital payments”: the “pain of paying” is missing. In games, it is especially weak because you often spend “crystals” bought earlier rather than francs.
• Artificial waiting times: “Your workshop will be ready in 7 hours – or instantly for 60 rubies.” The wait is not a technical problem; it is deliberately built in. The delay is what makes the shortcut worth paying for.
• Daily streaks: “Your streak: 41 days!” Miss a day and you lose the streak. The streak is not something tangible – but losing it feels like a loss. That brings you back to the game every day, and people who play daily are more likely to spend money.

Looked at plainly, this is a business model: these games are often designed so that a few big spenders generate a large share of the revenue. The mechanics are optimised to turn playing time into attachment, and attachment into purchases – for adults and fourteen-year-olds alike.

Dark patterns do not work because people are stupid. They work because they tap into perfectly normal reactions we all have:

• Time pressure switches off careful thinking. If you only have seconds, you go with your gut – weighing things up properly takes time, and that is exactly what the countdown takes away. This is what timers and scarcity have in common: they create a rush where none is needed.
• Fear of loss outweighs the pleasure of gaining something. Missing out on something or losing it feels worse than not getting something in the first place. “Only 2 left” threatens you with missing out; a streak threatens you with losing something – both push the same button.
• Social pressure: “23 other people are looking at this item right now.” What lots of people do automatically seems right and urgent – even if those 23 other people have nothing to do with you.
• Taking the easy option: The route laid out for you is the easiest. Pre-ticked boxes stay ticked, the big colourful button gets pressed – not because you are convinced, but because every alternative takes effort.

Then there is what you learnt in “Personal finance II: debt traps and digital payments”: digital payments lack the pain of paying – so the brakes are already off before the first trick even starts.

The practical conclusion matters: you cannot train these reactions out of yourself, and you do not need to. Protecting yourself is not about being “stronger” than your gut feelings – it is about recognising the situation and taking the urgency out of it.

If manipulation is so widespread, why is it still around? From “Competition: monopoly and competitive markets”, you know the market’s answer: competition keeps providers in check because customers can go elsewhere. This is exactly where dark patterns come in: making cancellation difficult makes switching a hassle, and if almost all major providers use the same tricks, there is hardly anywhere else to go. Manipulation thrives where there is little competitive or regulatory pressure – making it a political question: should the state ban these practices?

The current position, briefly: EU consumer protection rules already ban certain practices. The total price must be visible before you place an order, an order button must make it clear that payment is required, and pre-ticked boxes for additional charges are not allowed. More recent EU rules also ban online platforms from deceiving their users through deliberately misleading design. The established shopping rules also apply here through the EEA – the European Economic Area, which Liechtenstein joined in 1995; work to incorporate the newer platform rules into the EEA is still in progress. Some countries have also restricted loot boxes, classifying them as gambling.

That does not settle the matter – the issue remains contested and keeps changing:

• The case for stricter bans: These patterns deliberately exploit normal human reactions, particularly affect young people – and individual users can do little to defend themselves against manipulation that has been tested on people.
• The case against: It is hard to draw the line – where does skilful selling end and manipulation begin? A shop window is hardly a neutral space either. Rules that are too broad can also affect harmless design.
• Only one thing is certain: providers keep inventing new versions, rules follow, and enforcement is uneven. Some of what you see in the picture would already be against the rules today, yet you still encounter it. This race will not end any time soon.

There is no ready-made answer here – you will develop your own in task 2.

Good intentions (“I won’t let myself be manipulated!”) are no match for tried-and-tested tricks – routines help. Four strategies are enough for most situations:

1. Wait instead of clicking. If a countdown is running or a scarcity warning is flashing, deliberately ignore it and wait a day. If you still want the item tomorrow, you can buy it calmly – and almost always at the same price. Real needs last overnight; artificial urgency does not.
2. Check the final price. Before pressing the buy button, read through your basket: subtotal, delivery, fees and ticked extras. If the final price does not match what you were promised earlier, this is your last and best chance to back out.
3. Find out how to cancel before signing up. Before starting a subscription – even a free trial month – look for the way out: where do you cancel, how quickly and in how many clicks? If cancelling is hidden away or only possible by phone, that tells you more about the provider than any advert. And you know the practical step from “Personal finance II: debt traps and digital payments”: set a cancellation reminder on your phone as soon as you sign up.
4. Set a spending limit for in-app purchases. You can set up a limit or require purchase confirmation in your phone or account settings – bringing back a hurdle to replace the missing “pain of paying”. Your budget from “Personal Finance I: Budgeting, Saving and Payslips” gives you the right figure to use.

And throughout: name the trick when you spot it. “Aha, confirmshaming.” Saying the pattern’s name out loud takes you off autopilot – and puts you back in charge of your decisions.