This paper focuses on persuasion and user autonomy education. With the rise of persuasive features in interactive systems which are aimed at increasing revenue, gathering user information and maximising user engagement, users’ autonomy has been argued to be an ethical concern within persuasive UX design. Thus, the researchers test a framework to educate design students on the ethics of persuasion from the perspective of user autonomy. Findings showed that following this, their critical attitudes towards persuasive design increased. Based on this among others, they propose future directions for integrating ethics into user experience design.

This paper aims to conceptualize user autonomy within the context of dark patterns. The authors systematically review 151 dark patterns from 16 taxonomies to understand how dark patterns threaten users’ autonomy. They demonstrate through this analysis that implications for autonomy arise along four dimensions, because autonomy itself can be understood as subsuming several distinguishable concepts: agency, freedom of choice, control and independence. They argue that assessing whether a design pattern qualifies as ‘dark’ should account for the sense in which autonomy is threatened, as individuals’ rights and expectations of autonomy vary between contexts and depend upon the interpretation of autonomy. It aims to contribute to the development of the normative lens of individual autonomy for the evaluation of dark patterns and persuasive design.

The authors begin the article by examining dark patterns and their prevalence based on extensive earlier research. It first discusses how behavioural economics can help us to understand the workings of dark patterns (the ‘old’), and how digitalization has changed the costs and benefits behind their implementation and exploitation (the ‘new’). They discuss how economics can inform ongoing policy discussions on appropriate regulatory responses, and how it can help to assess the effects of the use of dark patterns. They also assess two key developments in the digital space which have made dark patterns much more pervasive: minimal costs and vast gains. The effectiveness of competition policy and a healthy competition process as effective tools in curbing dark patterns are also assessed by the authors. Lastly, the article addresses important issues such as auditing and A/B testing for dark patterns, as well as using data on consumer outcomes to identify dark patterns as promising avenues to be explored in the further research and study of dark patterns.