Misleading Consumers

The MisLead project investigates misleading commercial practices in digital market spaces. Various online scams to mislead consumers have exploded. The harmfulness of the phenomenon is acknowledged, but multidisciplinary and critical analysis of the market logic is lacking. MisLead investigates the roles and practices of human and non-human actors in disseminating misleading online content. The research team consists of researchers in consumer research, communication sciences, human-technology interaction, economics and law from the university of Vaasa.

The project focuses especially on e-commerce of fashion and clothing and examines the rhetorical, technological and gamification mechanisms used to mislead consumers, as well as how they affect consumer well-being and financial literacy. In addition to a more multidisciplinary conceptual understanding, the project will produce a media literacy guide and a tool for identifying dark patterns in user interface design.