{"id":12529,"date":"2024-04-04T18:25:29","date_gmt":"2024-04-04T18:25:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.golive.clarku.edu\/news\/2024\/04\/04\/a-nudge-in-the-right-direction\/"},"modified":"2025-05-19T09:25:46","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T13:25:46","slug":"a-nudge-in-the-right-direction","status":"publish","type":"story","link":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2024\/04\/04\/a-nudge-in-the-right-direction\/","title":{"rendered":"A nudge in the right direction"},"content":{"rendered":"\n \n

Studying how tech tactics can motivate or entrap users<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/iframe> \n  \n Professor Peter Story<\/p>\nSometimes app developers create sneaky strategies to keep you on your phone longer. Other times, they create tools meant to help consumers protect their data or accomplish tasks. These mechanisms are at the heart of research by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/academics\/undergraduate\/programs\/majors-minors\/computer-science\/\" aria-label=\"major in computer science\">computer science<\/a> Professor <a href=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/faculty\/profiles\/peter-story\/\" aria-label=\"professor bio\">Peter Story<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/schools\/becker-school-of-design-and-technology\/\">Becker School of Design & Technology<\/a> Professor <a href=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/faculty\/profiles\/kat-andler\/\">Kat Andler<\/a>.\n<\/p>\nThe tools developers use to hook consumers are called dark patterns and can include tactics to keep a person playing a game longer, therefore seeing more advertisements and making the developers more money.<\/p>\n“It brings out the passion in people because if you feel like you have been manipulated, you’re going to be pretty upset about that,” says Andler, who prepares her students to recognize dark patterns and think up alternative designs. “You have to know what’s bad to avoid it in the future.”<\/p>\nThankfully, there are light patterns, or nudges, a tool meant to assist the average person with helpful reminders.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_50572\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-50572\" style=\"width: 420px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium-large wp-image-50572\" src=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/0322_BSDT-Behind-the-Scenes-NESN-Photos125-420x280-2.jpg\" alt=\"professor next to tv screen\" width=\"420\" height=\"280\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-50572\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Professor Kat Andler discusses video game user experience for a segment of NESN Clubhouse.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n“People live busy lives. They can’t be thinking carefully about every decision every day,” Story says. “The idea is for people with authority to help people make the decisions that are in their best interest.”<\/p>\nStory has studied nudges that encourage people to use protective technologies such as Apple Pay, a mobile payment system that is more secure than using a debit card.<\/p>\n“The protection motivation theory is one type of nudge that provides high-quality information about what you want protection from and what you can do,” Story explains. “I think there’s a lot of strong evidence that that works well.”<\/p>\nChallenge. Change.<\/strong> is produced by Andrew Hart and Melissa Hanson for Clark University. Listen and subscribe on <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/4UuYAjq1d3Hq45cjwxoCNL\" aria-label=\"listen on spotify\">Spotify<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/challenge-change\/id1608025510\" aria-label=\"listen on Apple Podcasts\">Apple Podcasts<\/a>. Find other episodes wherever you listen to podcasts.<\/p>\n<div class=\"csidebar center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium-large wp-image-50573 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022-PAX-EAST-24-420x280-2.jpg\" alt=\"video game booth at expo\" width=\"420\" height=\"280\"><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center\">Hear more Clark stories on Challenge. Change.<\/h3>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/clarknow.clarku.edu\/2024\/03\/14\/academics-and-the-academy\/\">Professors Hugh Manon, Jed Samer, and Soren Sorensen Recommend 2023 Cinematic Standouts<\/a><\/p>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/clarknow.clarku.edu\/2023\/10\/18\/gpa-is-not-destiny\/\">Chanda Prescod-Weinstein and the Disordered Cosmos<\/a><\/p>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/clarknow.clarku.edu\/2023\/04\/07\/a-spark-of-magic\/\">Ed Greig ’23 vs. PAX East<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/body><\/html><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Studying how tech tactics can motivate or entrap users<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":12530,"template":"","meta":{"story_color":"#525250","story_headerImg":12530,"section_label":"Challenge. Change. Podcast","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[223,227],"displayed_author":[237],"featured":[],"topic":[154,150,160,216,176,162],"class_list":["post-12529","story","type-story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-clark-community","category-science-technology","displayed_author-melissa-hanson","topic-computer-science","topic-faculty","topic-faculty-research","topic-major-in-computer-science","topic-podcast","topic-research"],"yoast_head":"\n<title>A nudge in the right direction | ClarkU News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2024\/04\/04\/a-nudge-in-the-right-direction\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A nudge in the right direction\" \/>\n<meta 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