Mike Bloomberg's presidential campaign website (mikebloomberg.com) displays a periodic popup that states people in certain states are signing up as volunteers. How terrific!
But here’s a secret: that message is falsely generated using some good ol’ JavaScript.
But here’s a secret: that message is falsely generated using some good ol’ JavaScript.
The message (Someone in Virginia signed up to volunteer) is a social proof nudge, and can be traced back to the famous towel reuse experiment. Researchers showed that appeals that employed descriptive social norms got more people to reuse their towels. assets.csom.umn.edu/assets/118359.…
While such nudges were envisioned to be used for socially relevant causes such as environmental conservation, they are now being used to influence us into making impulse purchases or guilting us into staying on Facebook—often with fabricated messages.
Until recently, dark patterns such as these often appeared in e-commerce or social media websites. But here's an example of how, if left unchecked, these will likely percolate through to high-stakes domains like politics where we can no longer afford to be manipulated as easily.
Update: The campaign has taken down the script that generated these messages.
Maybe that's what happens when a >1000 people learn about your deceptive messages in the last 12 hours?😂
Maybe that's what happens when a >1000 people learn about your deceptive messages in the last 12 hours?😂
