Recent work has shown that front-end code generated by Large Language Models (LLMs) can embed deceptive designs. To assess the magnitude of this problem, identify the factors that influence deceptive design production, and test strategies for reducing deceptive designs, we carried out two studies which generated and analyzed 1,296 LLM-generated web components, along with a design rationale for each. The first study tested four LLMs for 15 common ecommerce components. Overall 55.8% of components contained at least one deceptive design, and 30.6% contained two or more. Occurrence varied significantly across models, with DeepSeek-V3 producing the fewest. Interface interference emerged as the dominant strategy, using color psychology to influence actions and hiding essential information.
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Deception at Scale: Deceptive Designs in 1K LLM-Generated E-Commerce Components
The first study found that prompts emphasizing business interests significantly increased deceptive designs, so a second study tested a variety of prompting strategies to reduce their frequency, finding a values-centered approach the most effective.