Lecture 8 boundaries of online persuasion

Question 1

dark pattern

Answer 1

a design made to trick you into buying things you don’t want.
for example adding something to your cart online

Question 2

differences online and offline consumer behavior

Answer 2

• online you pay less attention
• you have less understanding
• tendency to make simplified choices that shorten your search time

Question 3

unique characteristics of online world

Answer 3

• consumers can pay for services with their personal data
• personal or other data help predict behavior
• decision-making based on algorithms
• direct results of A/B testing

Question 4

why should there be consumer protection

Answer 4

consumers aren’t always aware their data is being collected.

Question 5

ACM

Answer 5

autoriteit consument en markt
steps in to protect consumers.
they have legal power to investigate and sanction businesses that break the law. They ensure that markets work well for people and businesses.

Question 6

what does the ACM do to achieve their goal

Answer 6

• deal with unfair commercial practices
• provide education about rules and rights
• promote fair markets

Question 7

what do we mean when we speak about the consumer protection law?

Answer 7

term refers to a board set of legislations. Of which the most important piece is the law of unfair commercial practices.

Question 8

unfair commercial practices?

Answer 8

• providing incorrect information
• omitting relevant information
• pressure to make decision

Question 9

open norms

Answer 9

open norms are generic and technology neutral so they can be applicable to many marketing techniques en businesses. they require interpretation in specific cases because of this.

Question 10

guidelines of ACM

Answer 10

• guidelines aim for promoting compliance with the rules and compliance among businesses
• they provide guidance to businesses on the application of the open standards of consumer rules to online choice architecture.
• they give pratical examples of various online phenomena

Question 11

scarcity claims

Answer 11

can be useful, but needs to be factual.

Question 12

unfair order and presentation

Answer 12

ranking of offers or services. can be useful, but needs to be true. Needs to be clear informed about paid sponsering because consumers will assume that search results are organic (based on relevance).
the parameters that have been used to establish the rankings must also be known.

Question 13

default settings

Answer 13

businesses cannot pre-select by default any additional costs or payment methods that have additional costs.
there should only be an opt in option if it comes with extra costs. if it doesn’t businesses should give an opt out option.

we know from psychological research default settings are very powerful to influence behavior.

Question 14

abuse of automatic behavior

Answer 14

businesses muct design their website in such a way that the customer journey is consistent in their meaning, because otherwise consumers might make the wrong decision.

Question 15

the most important basic principles of the guidelines

Answer 15

• Give complete, correct, and easy to understand information. Make sure you give the information before the purchase and that information can be found easily.
• Make sure the design is logical and fair.
• Make sure the default settings are favorable to consumers.
• Be mindful of vulnerable consumers.
• Test the effect of your online choice architecture.