Do People Tend to Select a Delayed Item?

Dark patterns that lead users to unintentionally harmful behaviors are often used in e-commerce and social media, and consumer troubles are frequent. Dark patterns are also seen in choice situations, where some attempt to induce the user's behavior by making specific options prominent. Focusing on user interfaces that seem fair at first glance, but induce users to make a choice, we investigated the effect of delayed display of options for inducing users to make a choice. Specifically, we conducted a crowdsourcing experiment based on the hypothesis that when only one choice is delayed, the delayed choice is more likely to be selected. The experimental results showed no tendency for the delayed option to be chosen more often overall. However, we found that the effect of the delayed display of alternatives on choice varied from person to person. Specifically, it was suggested that a delayed display of the option in the upper left corner of the screen with a delay time of 0.1 seconds for early choosers and a delayed display of the choice in the center of the screen with a delay time of 0.2 seconds for late choosers might induce their choice behavior.