Creative manipulation: a case study of confirmshaming as a deceptive design pattern
Abstract
This research article explores the intersection between creativity and deceptive design patterns, focusing on the concept of confirmshaming within the broader framework of a creative society. Focusing on confirmshaming as a case study, this article explores how such deceptive design practices exemplify the dark side of creativity, where digital technologies are used to manipulate user behavior. The aim of this research is to explore the mechanisms and impacts of confirmshaming on user decision-making. By emphasizing the importance of ethical awareness and accountability in digital design practices, this study advocates for the preservation of user autonomy in digital interactions. Ultimately, this article should serve as a call to action for the design community to prioritize responsible and humane design of digital technology.
Keyword : confirmshaming, creative society, dark creativity, dark user experience patterns, deceptive design, digital creativity, user experience, user experience design
How to Cite
Knyzelis, M. (2024). Creative manipulation: a case study of confirmshaming as a deceptive design pattern. Creativity Studies, 17(1), 335–344. https://doi.org/10.3846/cs.2024.21308
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
References
Bongard-Blanchy, K., Rossi, A., Rivas, S., Doublet, S., Koenig, V., & Lenzini, G. (2021). “I am definitely manipulated, even when i am aware of it. It’s ridiculous!” – Dark patterns from the end-user perspective. In W. Ju, L. Oehlberg, S. Follmer, S. Fox, & S. Kuznetsov (Eds.), DIS ‘21: Proceedings of the 2021 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference (pp. 763–776). Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/3461778.3462086
Brignull, H. (2024). Deceptive patterns: Exposing the tricks tech companies use to control you. Testimonium Ltd.
Burg, C., Rehm, M., & Gomez Cubero, C. (2022). The effects of interaction strategy and robot intent on shopping behavior. In Proceedings of 2022 31st IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN): Social, Asocial, and Antisocial Robots (pp. 1001–1006). Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Press. https://doi.org/10.1109/RO-MAN53752.2022.9900562
Cara, C. (2019). Dark patterns in the media: A systematic review. Network Intelligence Studies, 7(14), 105–113.
Chromik, M., Eiband, M., Völkel, S. Th., & Buschek, D. (2019). Dark patterns of explainability, transparency, and user control for intelligent systems. In Association for Computing Machinery Intelligent User Interfaces Workshops 2019. Los Angeles, California, United States. https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2327/IUI19WS-ExSS2019-7.pdf
Cropley, D. H. (2010). The dark side of creativity: A differentiated model. In D. H. Cropley, A. J. Cropley, J. C. Kaufman, & M. A. Runco (Eds.), The dark side of creativity (pp. 360–373). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511761225.020
Findeli, A. (2001). Rethinking design education for the 21st century: Theoretical, methodological, and ethical discussion. Design Issues, 17(1), 5–17. https://doi.org/10.1162/07479360152103796
Florida, R. (2005). Cities and the creative class. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203997673
Geronimo, di L., Braz, L., Fregnan, E., Palomba, F., & Bacchelli, A. 2020. UI dark patterns and where to find them: A study on mobile applications and user perception. In CHI ‘20: Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 473–486). Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/3313831.3376600
Gray, C. M., Kou, Y., Battles, B., Hoggatt, J., & Toombs, A. L. (2018). The dark (Patterns) side of UX design. In CHI 2018: Proceedings of the 2018 CHI: Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 534–547). Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/3173574.3174108
James, K., Clark, K., & Cropanzano, R. (1999). Positive and negative creativity in groups, institutions, and organizations: A model and theoretical extension. Creativity Research Journal, 12(3), 211–226. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15326934crj1203_6
Jeanes, E. L. (2006). “Resisting creativity, creating the new”: A Deleuzian perspective on creativity. Creativity and Innovation Management, 15(2), 127–134. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8691.2006.00379.x
Kacerauskas, T. (2020). Creative economy and the idea of the creative society. Transformations in Business and Economics, 19(1), 43–52.
Kačerauskas, T. (2015a). Creative society: Concepts and problems. Cultura: International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology, 12(2), 27–44. https://doi.org/10.5840/cultura201512219
Kačerauskas, T. (2015b). Technologies in creative economy and creative society. Technological and Economic Development of Economy, 21(6), 855–868. https://doi.org/10.3846/20294913.2015.1036325
Kačerauskas, T. (2014). Kūrybos visuomenės terminai ir sampratos. LOGOS: religijos, filosofijos, komparatyvistikos ir meno žurnalas, 78, 6–18.
Lickel, B., Kushlev, K., Savalei, V., Matta, Sh., & Schmader, T. (2014). Shame and the motivation to change the self. Emotion, 14(6), 1049–1061. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0038235
Löschner, D. M., & Pannasch, S. (2023). Different ways to deceive: Uncovering the psychological effects of the three dark patterns preselection, confirmshaming and disguised ads. In C. Stephanidis, M. Anthona, S. Ntoa, & G. Salvendy (Eds.), HCI International 2023 – Late Breaking Posters. HCII 2023. Communications in Computer and Information Science (Part I, Vol. 1957, pp. 62–69). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-49212-9_9
Mahajan, R., & Shneiderman, B. (1997). Visual and textual consistency checking tools for graphical user interfaces. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, 23(11), 722–735. https://doi.org/10.1109/32.637386
Mathur, A. (2021). Identifying and measuring manipulative user interfaces at scale on the web. In Y. Kitamura, A. Quigley, K. Isbister, & T. Igarashi (Eds.), CHI EA ‘21: Extended Abstracts of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1–5). Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/3411763.3457782
Mathur, A., Kshirsagar, M., & Mayer, J. (2021). What makes a dark pattern... Dark? Design attributes, normative considerations, and measurement methods. In CHI ’21: Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1–18). Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/3411764.3445610
Mejtoft, Th., Frängsmyr, E., Söderström, U., & Norberg, O. (2021). Deceptive design: Cookie consent and manipulative patterns. In A. Pucihar, R. M. Kljajić Borštna, R. Bons, H. Cripps, A. Sheombar, & D. Vidmar (Eds.), 34th Bled e-Conference: Digital Support from Crisis to Progressive Change. Online Conference Proceedings (pp. 393–404). University of Maribor Press. https://doi.org/10.18690/978-961-286-485-9.29
Monge Roffarello, A., & Russis, de L. (2022). Towards understanding the dark patterns that steal our attention. In S. Barbosa, C. Lampe, C. Appert, & D. A. Shamma (Eds.), CHI EA ‘22: Extended Abstracts of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1–7). Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/3491101.3519829
Monteiro, M. (2019). Ruined by design: How designers destroyed the world, and what we can do to fix it. Mule Books.
Mould, O. (2018). Against creativity. Verso.
Naheyan, T., & Oyibo, K. (2024). The effect of dark patterns and user knowledge on user experience and decision-making. In N. Baghaei, R. Ali, K. Win, & K. Oyibo (Eds.), Persuasive Technology: 19th International Conference. PERSUASIVE 2024. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (Vol. 14636, pp. 190–206). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-58226-4_15
Obi, I., Gray, C. M., Sai Chivukula, Sh., Duane, J.-N., Johns, J., Will, M., Li, Z., & Carlock, Th. (2022). Let’s talk about socio-technical angst: Tracing the history and evolution of dark patterns on Twitter from 2010–2021. arXiv. https://arxiv.org/pdf/2207.10563
Parmer, W. J. (2022). Manipulative design through gamification. In F. Jongepier & M. Klenk (Eds.), Routledge research in applied ethics. The philosophy of online manipulation (pp. 216–234). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003205425-13
Price Tangney, J., Miller, R. S., Flicker, L., & Barlow, D. H. (1996). Are shame, guilt, and embarrassment distinct emotions? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70(6), 1256–1269. https://doi.org/10.1037//0022-3514.70.6.1256
Reimeris, R. (2016). Theoretical features of the creative society. Creativity Studies, 9(1), 15–24. https://doi.org/10.3846/23450479.2015.1088902
Rhodes, M. (1961). An analysis of creativity. The Phi Delta Kappan, 42(7), 305–310.
Rosala, M. (2023). Deceptive patterns in UX: How to recognize and avoid them. Nielsen Norman Group. https://www.nngroup.com/articles/deceptive-patterns/
Runco, M. A. (2010). Creativity has no dark side. In D. H. Cropley, A. J. Cropley, J. C. Kaufman, & M. A. Runco (Eds.), The dark side of creativity (pp. 15–32). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511761225.002
Runco, M. A., & Jaeger, G. J. (2012). The standard definition of creativity. Creativity Research Journal, 24(1), 92–96. https://doi.org/10.1080/10400419.2012.650092
Sai Chivukula, Sh., Brier, J., & Gray, C. M. (2018). Dark intentions or persuasion? UX designers’ activation of stakeholder and user values. In DIS ‘18 Companion: Proceedings of the 2018 ACM Conference Companion Publication on Designing Interactive Systems (pp. 87–91). Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/3197391.3205417
Sapio, D. (2020). 10 evil types of dark UX patterns: How designers are using UX for evil. Medium. https://uxdesign.cc/10-evil-types-of-dark-ux-patterns-f5a408c43c62
Stein, M. I. (1953). Creativity and culture. The Journal of Psychology: Interdisciplinary and Applied, 36(2), 311–322. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223980.1953.9712897
Stern, M. J., & Seifert, S. C. (2008). From creative economy to creative society. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/129586765.pdf
Susser, D., Roessler, B., & Nissenbaum, H. (2019). Online manipulation: Hidden influences in a digital world. Georgetown Law Technology Review, 4(1). https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3306006
Voigt, Ch., Schlögl, S., & Groth, A. (2021). Dark patterns in online shopping: Of sneaky tricks, perceived annoyance and respective brand trust. In F. F.-H. Nah & K. Siau (Eds.), HCI in Business, Government and Organizations. HCIBGO 2021. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (Vol. 12783, pp. 143–155). Springer–Verlag. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-77750-0_10
Wang, X., Lee, L.-H., Bermejo Fernandez, C., & Hui, P. (2023). The dark side of augmented reality: Exploring manipulative designs in AR. International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction. https://doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2023.2188799
Brignull, H. (2024). Deceptive patterns: Exposing the tricks tech companies use to control you. Testimonium Ltd.
Burg, C., Rehm, M., & Gomez Cubero, C. (2022). The effects of interaction strategy and robot intent on shopping behavior. In Proceedings of 2022 31st IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN): Social, Asocial, and Antisocial Robots (pp. 1001–1006). Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Press. https://doi.org/10.1109/RO-MAN53752.2022.9900562
Cara, C. (2019). Dark patterns in the media: A systematic review. Network Intelligence Studies, 7(14), 105–113.
Chromik, M., Eiband, M., Völkel, S. Th., & Buschek, D. (2019). Dark patterns of explainability, transparency, and user control for intelligent systems. In Association for Computing Machinery Intelligent User Interfaces Workshops 2019. Los Angeles, California, United States. https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2327/IUI19WS-ExSS2019-7.pdf
Cropley, D. H. (2010). The dark side of creativity: A differentiated model. In D. H. Cropley, A. J. Cropley, J. C. Kaufman, & M. A. Runco (Eds.), The dark side of creativity (pp. 360–373). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511761225.020
Findeli, A. (2001). Rethinking design education for the 21st century: Theoretical, methodological, and ethical discussion. Design Issues, 17(1), 5–17. https://doi.org/10.1162/07479360152103796
Florida, R. (2005). Cities and the creative class. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203997673
Geronimo, di L., Braz, L., Fregnan, E., Palomba, F., & Bacchelli, A. 2020. UI dark patterns and where to find them: A study on mobile applications and user perception. In CHI ‘20: Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 473–486). Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/3313831.3376600
Gray, C. M., Kou, Y., Battles, B., Hoggatt, J., & Toombs, A. L. (2018). The dark (Patterns) side of UX design. In CHI 2018: Proceedings of the 2018 CHI: Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 534–547). Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/3173574.3174108
James, K., Clark, K., & Cropanzano, R. (1999). Positive and negative creativity in groups, institutions, and organizations: A model and theoretical extension. Creativity Research Journal, 12(3), 211–226. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15326934crj1203_6
Jeanes, E. L. (2006). “Resisting creativity, creating the new”: A Deleuzian perspective on creativity. Creativity and Innovation Management, 15(2), 127–134. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8691.2006.00379.x
Kacerauskas, T. (2020). Creative economy and the idea of the creative society. Transformations in Business and Economics, 19(1), 43–52.
Kačerauskas, T. (2015a). Creative society: Concepts and problems. Cultura: International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology, 12(2), 27–44. https://doi.org/10.5840/cultura201512219
Kačerauskas, T. (2015b). Technologies in creative economy and creative society. Technological and Economic Development of Economy, 21(6), 855–868. https://doi.org/10.3846/20294913.2015.1036325
Kačerauskas, T. (2014). Kūrybos visuomenės terminai ir sampratos. LOGOS: religijos, filosofijos, komparatyvistikos ir meno žurnalas, 78, 6–18.
Lickel, B., Kushlev, K., Savalei, V., Matta, Sh., & Schmader, T. (2014). Shame and the motivation to change the self. Emotion, 14(6), 1049–1061. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0038235
Löschner, D. M., & Pannasch, S. (2023). Different ways to deceive: Uncovering the psychological effects of the three dark patterns preselection, confirmshaming and disguised ads. In C. Stephanidis, M. Anthona, S. Ntoa, & G. Salvendy (Eds.), HCI International 2023 – Late Breaking Posters. HCII 2023. Communications in Computer and Information Science (Part I, Vol. 1957, pp. 62–69). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-49212-9_9
Mahajan, R., & Shneiderman, B. (1997). Visual and textual consistency checking tools for graphical user interfaces. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, 23(11), 722–735. https://doi.org/10.1109/32.637386
Mathur, A. (2021). Identifying and measuring manipulative user interfaces at scale on the web. In Y. Kitamura, A. Quigley, K. Isbister, & T. Igarashi (Eds.), CHI EA ‘21: Extended Abstracts of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1–5). Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/3411763.3457782
Mathur, A., Kshirsagar, M., & Mayer, J. (2021). What makes a dark pattern... Dark? Design attributes, normative considerations, and measurement methods. In CHI ’21: Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1–18). Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/3411764.3445610
Mejtoft, Th., Frängsmyr, E., Söderström, U., & Norberg, O. (2021). Deceptive design: Cookie consent and manipulative patterns. In A. Pucihar, R. M. Kljajić Borštna, R. Bons, H. Cripps, A. Sheombar, & D. Vidmar (Eds.), 34th Bled e-Conference: Digital Support from Crisis to Progressive Change. Online Conference Proceedings (pp. 393–404). University of Maribor Press. https://doi.org/10.18690/978-961-286-485-9.29
Monge Roffarello, A., & Russis, de L. (2022). Towards understanding the dark patterns that steal our attention. In S. Barbosa, C. Lampe, C. Appert, & D. A. Shamma (Eds.), CHI EA ‘22: Extended Abstracts of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1–7). Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/3491101.3519829
Monteiro, M. (2019). Ruined by design: How designers destroyed the world, and what we can do to fix it. Mule Books.
Mould, O. (2018). Against creativity. Verso.
Naheyan, T., & Oyibo, K. (2024). The effect of dark patterns and user knowledge on user experience and decision-making. In N. Baghaei, R. Ali, K. Win, & K. Oyibo (Eds.), Persuasive Technology: 19th International Conference. PERSUASIVE 2024. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (Vol. 14636, pp. 190–206). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-58226-4_15
Obi, I., Gray, C. M., Sai Chivukula, Sh., Duane, J.-N., Johns, J., Will, M., Li, Z., & Carlock, Th. (2022). Let’s talk about socio-technical angst: Tracing the history and evolution of dark patterns on Twitter from 2010–2021. arXiv. https://arxiv.org/pdf/2207.10563
Parmer, W. J. (2022). Manipulative design through gamification. In F. Jongepier & M. Klenk (Eds.), Routledge research in applied ethics. The philosophy of online manipulation (pp. 216–234). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003205425-13
Price Tangney, J., Miller, R. S., Flicker, L., & Barlow, D. H. (1996). Are shame, guilt, and embarrassment distinct emotions? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70(6), 1256–1269. https://doi.org/10.1037//0022-3514.70.6.1256
Reimeris, R. (2016). Theoretical features of the creative society. Creativity Studies, 9(1), 15–24. https://doi.org/10.3846/23450479.2015.1088902
Rhodes, M. (1961). An analysis of creativity. The Phi Delta Kappan, 42(7), 305–310.
Rosala, M. (2023). Deceptive patterns in UX: How to recognize and avoid them. Nielsen Norman Group. https://www.nngroup.com/articles/deceptive-patterns/
Runco, M. A. (2010). Creativity has no dark side. In D. H. Cropley, A. J. Cropley, J. C. Kaufman, & M. A. Runco (Eds.), The dark side of creativity (pp. 15–32). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511761225.002
Runco, M. A., & Jaeger, G. J. (2012). The standard definition of creativity. Creativity Research Journal, 24(1), 92–96. https://doi.org/10.1080/10400419.2012.650092
Sai Chivukula, Sh., Brier, J., & Gray, C. M. (2018). Dark intentions or persuasion? UX designers’ activation of stakeholder and user values. In DIS ‘18 Companion: Proceedings of the 2018 ACM Conference Companion Publication on Designing Interactive Systems (pp. 87–91). Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/3197391.3205417
Sapio, D. (2020). 10 evil types of dark UX patterns: How designers are using UX for evil. Medium. https://uxdesign.cc/10-evil-types-of-dark-ux-patterns-f5a408c43c62
Stein, M. I. (1953). Creativity and culture. The Journal of Psychology: Interdisciplinary and Applied, 36(2), 311–322. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223980.1953.9712897
Stern, M. J., & Seifert, S. C. (2008). From creative economy to creative society. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/129586765.pdf
Susser, D., Roessler, B., & Nissenbaum, H. (2019). Online manipulation: Hidden influences in a digital world. Georgetown Law Technology Review, 4(1). https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3306006
Voigt, Ch., Schlögl, S., & Groth, A. (2021). Dark patterns in online shopping: Of sneaky tricks, perceived annoyance and respective brand trust. In F. F.-H. Nah & K. Siau (Eds.), HCI in Business, Government and Organizations. HCIBGO 2021. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (Vol. 12783, pp. 143–155). Springer–Verlag. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-77750-0_10
Wang, X., Lee, L.-H., Bermejo Fernandez, C., & Hui, P. (2023). The dark side of augmented reality: Exploring manipulative designs in AR. International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction. https://doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2023.2188799