Investigating User Preference on Visual Countermeasures Against Deceptive Paterns

Abstract

Deceptive patterns manipulate users by influencing their decision-making in favor of service providers. Due to their omnipresence in apps and online, effective countermeasures against these manipulations are crucial. In previous works, we proposed visual countermeasures that alter the content and appearance of deceptive patterns on the user's end. These countermeasures hide the manipulation completely, allow users to switch between the original content and the hidden version, or highlight and explain the manipulation. We now present a follow-up online study (n=61) that further investigated these three concepts of visual countermeasures against commonly used deceptive patterns. Compared to our previous study, our participants generally chose to hide manipulations or leave them unchanged more frequently. Overall, our work extends and strengthens results from our previous research through a larger participant sample, supporting a deeper understanding of user preferences for visual countermeasures.