Sludge, dark patterns and dark nudges: A taxonomy of online gambling platforms' deceptive design features.
Background: Gambling research has highlighted various aspects of deceptive design. For example, land‐based casinos are physically designed to encourage people to gamble there for longer. Similarly, various electronic gambling products, such as electronic gaming machines, exhibit "structural characte...
| Publicado en: | Addiction Vol. 120; no. 10; pp. 1916 - 1924 |
|---|---|
| Autor principal: | |
| Formato: | tables/charts Journal Article |
| Publicado: |
Wiley-Blackwell
Oct2025
|
| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=187948796&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ccm uiTerm: 187948796 longDbName: CINAHL Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: dissinfo: jinfo: jid: 09652140 AIO jtl: Addiction issn: 09652140 maglogo: Y pubinfo: dt: Oct2025 vid: 120 iid: 10 pid: 480 pub: Wiley-Blackwell place: Malden, Massachusetts artinfo: ui: 187948796 184815788 187948796 187948796 10.1111/add.70085 187948796 ppf: 1916 ppct: 8 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P tig: atl: Sludge, dark patterns and dark nudges: A taxonomy of online gambling platforms' deceptive design features. aug: au: Newall, Philip affil: School of Psychological Science, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK sug: subj: Gambling Psychosocial Factors Internet Deception User-Computer Interface Behavioral Changes Behavioral Sciences Policy Making Outcomes (Health Care) Collaboration Mobile Applications Audit World Wide Web ab: Background: Gambling research has highlighted various aspects of deceptive design. For example, land‐based casinos are physically designed to encourage people to gamble there for longer. Similarly, various electronic gambling products, such as electronic gaming machines, exhibit "structural characteristics" that likely encourage people to continue using them. Here I argue that the deceptive design of online gambling platforms is an important yet relatively neglected topic, representing the digital equivalent of land‐based gambling venue design. This topic's importance is underscored by online gambling's international growth. Argument: Online gambling platforms' deceptive design features can be categorized using three terms from the interdisciplinary field of behavioral science. "Sludge" refers to detrimental frictions, which feature for example in online gambling platforms' withdrawal processes. "Dark patterns" refers to deceptive user‐interface design more broadly, which includes sludge‐based features and other design features such as high suggested deposit/bet sizes. Finally, "dark nudges" refers to all of these as well as other aspects of deceptive design, such as presenting gambling as a fun activity. Conclusions: The complexity of online gambling platforms poses challenges for researchers, to understand what effects various design features have on behavior, and also for policymakers, to ensure fairer outcomes for people. Increased awareness and collaboration are needed from many stakeholders to better understand deceptive design features' behavioral impacts and to give them the appropriate regulatory attention in comparison to other determinants of harm. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: tables/charts Journal Article ougenre: Article language: English refInfo: holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
|---|