These explainers translate influential studies and institutional research into practical reading for legal, product, UX, compliance and engineering teams. Every article separates the research question, method, measured result and limitations. A study finding can inform a review; it is not a Digital Fairness Act rule or an infringement finding.
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Dark-pattern types examined16
GUI agents evaluated in phase one6
Study phases2
Selected values from the reviewed study. Open the guide for the method, denominator and limits.
Peer-reviewed study
AI agents can recognise a dark pattern, and still follow it
A 2026 CHI study tested people, GUI agents and human-agent teams across 16 dark-pattern types, revealing procedural blind spots and limits to oversight.
Original work
2026
Method
Six evaluated GUI agents and 16 dark-pattern types across diverse controlled scenarios, followed by human and human-agent conditions.
Why researchers needed an ontology for dark patterns
How the CHI 2024 dark-pattern ontology connects taxonomies and three levels of abstraction, including a documented count discrepancy and limits on legal conclusions.
Original work
2024
Method
Ten starting taxonomies; the published breakdown lists 65 pattern types across three levels, with a different count in the abstract.
The EDPB’s deceptive-design guide is practical, but narrower than it looks
A readable guide to the EDPB’s six deceptive-design categories, social-media lifecycle examples and the boundary between GDPR guidance and a future DFA.
Original work
2023
Method
Illustrative social-media interfaces covering account opening, information, consent and settings, data-subject rights and account closure.
Selected values from the reviewed study. Open the guide for the method, denominator and limits.
Institutional research
Why “97% of popular sites” does not mean 97% were unlawful
A plain-English guide to the European Commission’s 2022 behavioural study, its striking prevalence finding and the limits of the often-quoted 97% figure.
Original work
2022
Method
Popular websites and apps used by EU consumers across Member States, supported by behavioural and legal research.
Selected values from the reviewed study. Open the guide for the method, denominator and limits.
Peer-reviewed study
Subtle dark patterns can be more dangerous than obvious ones
Two large experiments found that dark patterns changed sign-up behaviour, and that mild designs could steer people without provoking the same backlash as aggressive tactics.
Original work
2021
Method
Census-weighted samples of adult participants in the United States.
Selected values from the reviewed study. Open the guide for the method, denominator and limits.
Peer-reviewed study
What a crawl of 11,000 shopping sites taught researchers about dark patterns
The landmark 2019 web-crawl study explained: how researchers found 1,818 dark-pattern instances, what automation could see and what the crawl could not prove.
Original work
2019
Method
Approximately 53,000 product pages on about 11,000 shopping websites.
