Deceptive Patterns
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Exploring the cognitive and emotional impact of deceptive patterns: an EEG, eye-tracking, and sentiment analysis of user experience

Author
Marzieh Jamalifard, Tony Russell-Rose
Date
11 Oct 2025
Publisher
Interacting with computers
Focus
HCI & Psychology
Category
Academic Scholar

This research highlights the importance of ethical design practices that prioritize user autonomy and transparency, offering a unique methodological contribution through the combined use of EEG, eye-tracking, and sentiment analysis to comprehensively capture cognitive and emotional responses.

This study investigates the cognitive and emotional impacts of specific “Deceptive Patterns” in user interface design on well-known online platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Spotify, Salesforce, Eventbrite, and PayPal. The focus is on two types of deceptive patterns, “hard to cancel” and “hidden subscription” practices. Employing an integrated methodology of electroencephalogram (EEG), eye-tracking, and sentiment analysis, this research analyzes how these patterns influence user behaviour, attention, and emotional responses. The study utilized EEG to measure cognitive load as users interacted with “hard to cancel” interfaces revealing that these platforms increase cognitive demands, inducing greater mental effort and frustration.