Analysis of “Dark Patterns” Social Media Articles Appearing in Duck Duck Go Search Engine Results

Abstract: With over 4 billion global users (Dixon, 2022), social media (SM) has been a growing force in the world in both positive and negative ways. It is considered synonymous with Web 2.0 given user generated content (Dabbagh & Kitsantas, 2012), but it is also more advanced in application and reach than the early days of Internet publishing. SM is of particular concern for developing the environment associated with Virtual Human Resource Development (VHRD) and more generally fostering the current digital transformation movement in which business process are strategically redesigned (Bennett, 2009, 2022; Bennett & McWhorter, 2021). SM has infiltrated organizational technology systems; it used for recruitment and onboarding searching (Roberts & Sambrook, 2014), connecting with customers and vendors with corporate experts (Korzynski, Mazurek, & Haenlein, 2020), online training (Sparta, 2012), and positive organizational membership (Breunig, 2016), to name a few. SM also carries concerning issues, especially from the design field.
Along with VHRD, there has been a coincidental rise in User Experience design (UX), which emphasizes ethical and aesthetically pleasing technological design that prioritizes user experience over corporate aims (Baylé, 2018). A new term “Dark Patterns” was coined by Brignull (2011) to capture how people can be manipulated and controlled for profit via design features. Original examples of dark patterns included hiding negative reviews and having default options that benefit the business. Dark patterns, however, have received little attention in VHRD literature.
Research Questions
This study is exploratory and a work in progress. The purpose of this study is to understand common types of dark patterns in social media and ways dark patterns are mitigated by practitioners by analyzing a search engine search result. Research questions include:
1. What common types of dark patterns are found in practitioner Internet articles located via the Duck Go search engine?
2. How are dark patterns mitigated in the design field?
3. What are the implications for corporate policy and designing VHRD?
Conceptual Framing
Virtual HRD
The primary conceptual frame for this study is VHRD, particularly the role of community building, use of expertise, and learning in corporate virtual environments, as well as the call for HRD professionals to design these environments in ethical and strategically responsive ways (Bennett, 2009; Bennett, 2022). SM provides an avenue for miseducation and ethical breaches when dark patterns are utilized to manipulate employees and customers.
 
Dark Patterns Defined
Brignull (2011) is one of the early practitioners to discuss dark patterns and provide case examples, the field’s knowledge has grown to include psychological elements and ways that technological features induce decisions that are not in a person’s best interest (Baylé, 2018). For the purposes of this study, dark patterns is defined as features of technology applications that exert psychological control to manipulate user decisions for the benefit of the organization that are not in the user’s best interests. Because dark patterns is a practitioner phenomenon that is shifting with developments in the design field, rather than a research based theory, this study seeks practitioner perspective.
Methods
This study employs a qualitative analysis strategy similar to content analysis for archival data in a basic qualitative study (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). It is also novel because it involves gathering documents from a search engine to simulate access to knowledge on dark patterns from a practitioner’s perspective. The search engine chosen is Duck Go because it is a favored search engine of technologists who desire privacy in web browsing where possible and it avoids paid commercial results typical of other search engines, such as Google. An initial search using “social media” and “dark patterns” was run, initially focusing on the top 60 results; anything after that and practitioners are not likely to access. The search will be re-run to obtain a final list, remove duplicates, and categorize the type of articles (research, practitioner, or policy statements) for content analysis response to the research questions.
 
Results
Partial study results may be available in time for the AHRD poster presentation, especially for the first research question.
Significance
There is great concern among scholars that the work world is not prepared for obsolescence of the physical office or the growth of new, technology-centric, decentralized organizational structures (Attaran, Attaran, & Kirkland, 2019), thus technology mediate work is continuing to present challenges to the field. Additionally leaders and HRD practitioners will be served to help them understand this little know design phenomenon that is important for ethical implementation of corporate systems and VHRD (Bennett & McWhorter, 2021).