FOMO self-quiz

“3 Minute FOMO test” at irdlabs.com

https://www.idrlabs.com/3-minute-fomo/test.php

JWT Report

Brands have many opportunities to fine-tune messaging, offers, contests and more to tap into fears of missing out. Although there’s no cure for the common FOMO, brands can focus on easing it, escalating it, making light of it or even turning it into a positive. (Miranda 2011, p. 17)

How to exploit

• Brands can inspire FOMO by offering “exclusive, unique or over-the-top experiences”; contextual advertising on social networks; incentives for name-dropping info tags, check in.
• Marketers can ease anxiety by encouraging consumers to step back from the fray (holidays and self-care); giving consumers some control over what they see.

Ethical?

Note that when tapping into FOMO, marketers must retain some sensitivity — this state of mind can be a sore spot for many consumers. So while FOMO has great potency as a marketing tool, it also has the potential to twist the knife for those especially sensitive to it (Miranda 2011, p. 18)

Defining FOMO

• what is cyberlanguage?
• what is FOMO? What are the two pieces?
• utility of Urban Dictionary?
• was FOMO the expression originally linked to social media? (Reagle 2015)

FOMO feelings

1. missing out
2. left out

(akin to envy vs. jealous)

Conspicuous sociality

• Veblen’s conspicuous consumption
• social comparison
• conspicuous sociality
• “keeping up with the Joneses”

Do we need these?

• MOMO (Mystery of Missing Out)
• FOMOMO (Fear of the Mystery of Missing Out)
• FOJI (Fear Of Joining In)
• JOMO (Joy Of Missing Out)
• BROMO (‘BROs’ protect you from Missing Out)
• SLOMO (Slow to Missing Out)
• JOMO (Joy of Missing Out)

Precursors of “dark patterns”?

. . .

1. retail practices
2. “nudge” research
3. growth hacking

Defined

Dark patterns are user interfaces that benefit an online service by leading users into making decisions they might not otherwise make. Some dark patterns deceive users while others covertly manipulate or coerce them into choices that are not in their best interests. (Narayanan et al. 2021)

invade privacy; make services addictive; exploit users

Types of deceptive patterns

Fake scarcity

• TurboTax hiding free tax-file program
• Facebook abusing 2FA phone numbers
• Uber nudging drivers to keep driving

more than 95% of the popular Android apps contain dark patterns (Narayanan et al. 2021)

Psychology??

Define and exemplify:

• anchoring effect
• nudging
• sludges

anchoring

people’s estimates become fixed to suggested numbers, even arbitrary ones like digits of SSN; wine prices

nudging

“benevolent institutions” engineer “choice architectures”: maintain freedom-of-choice while steering; organ-donation consent rates; towel reuse; reminders; defaults

sludges

Sunstein and Thaler distance themselves from unethical nudges (Narayanan et al. 2021)

Nudge or sludge??

• auto-enrolling employees in retirement plan (e.g., Northeastern)
• adding ads as email signatures (e.g., Hotmail)
• seeding listing with fake items (e.g., vacation rentals)
• requiring health plan (e.g., Massachusetts)
• spam users’ address book (e.g., Linked In)

Ryan Holiday of “Trust Me I’m Lying”

became a Stoic guru

ex. Find deceptive patterns (of 16)??

Fake scarcity

“pressured into completing an action because … a fake indication of limited supply or popularity.”

Fake social proof

“misled into believing a product is more popular or credible … because … fake reviews, testimonials, or activity messages.”

Forced action

“wants to do something, but they are required to do something else undesirable in return.” (Brignull et al. 2023)

Here’s one and another.

What to do?

. . .

• “Go beyond superficial A/B testing metrics.”
• “Incorporate ethics into the design process.”
  • articulate values that will guide design
  • give users moments (“friction”) to consider and reflect
• “Self-regulate or get regulated.” (Narayanan et al. 2021)

Legal?

• California’s CCPA/CPRA outlaws dark patterns relative to privacy.
  • “A business can’t use confusing language, such as doublenegatives (e.g., ‘Don’t Not Sell My Personal Information’), when providing consumers the choice to opt-out.”
• Similar provisions in other states and at the Federal level have failed.
• FTC Commissioner Rohit Chopra conceded “whack-a-mole” strategy is insufficient, needs to “deploy all tools” toward enforcing existing laws. They held a workshop (Merkel 2021)

Wrap up

Take 3 minutes to answer all of the following:

• what is a dark pattern?
• what is FOMO?
• why does FOMO happen?
• how is FOMO spoken of?

• what is a dark pattern?
• what is FOMO?
• why does FOMO happen?
• how is FOMO spoken of?

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