Lior J. Strahilevitz, "'Dark Patterns': Online Manipulation of Consumers"

Firms exploit consumers’ cognitive biases to manipulate them into buying goods or services they do not want. Professor Strahilevitz describes the use of one particular strategy—“Dark Patterns”—and explains how it differs from more familiar forms of manipulative sales behavior. He presents his new experimental research on Dark Patterns manipulations, examines their troubling effectiveness, and assesses the role of market forces and legal regulation in constraining their use.

This lecture was recorded on September 10, 2020, as part of the Coase-Sandor Global Lecture Series.