La manipolazione occulta: come i dark patterns influenzano le decisioni dei consumatori

Increasing competition in sales has led retailers to adopt different strategies to engage users and guide them through the digital purchasing process. Some retailers use ‘digital nudges’ that aim to guide the user through the buying process. Some e-commerce sites have resorted to the use of dark patterns, i.e. user interface elements that manipulate the user into making a choice that they might not have made, had they been given a free choice. This paper aims to investigate the use of dark patterns, trying to answer these questions: 1) what are dark patterns?; 2) why do dark patterns work?; 3) why are dark patterns used in e-commerce?