The Time is Ticking: The Effect of Limited Time Discounts on Consumers
Jelmer Tiemessen, Hanna Schraffenberger and Güneş Acar start from the observation that a deceptive countdown timer signals a limited-time offer although the deal carries on after the timer reaches zero, and that the effects of such dark patterns on buying behaviour are largely unknown. They present an experimental set-up and use it in an exploratory study with 245 participants, who completed a simulated online shopping task and then a questionnaire in one of three conditions: no special offer, a discount only, or a discount with a countdown timer. Both kinds of discount raised preference for the discounted product. Participants also reacted negatively to the deceptive timers, describing them as manipulative, immoral and unethical. The authors conclude that deceptive timers can create a fear of missing out and can make consumers averse to the offers and websites that use them.
Jelmer Tiemessen, Hanna Schraffenberger and Güneş Acar start from the observation that a deceptive countdown timer signals a limited-time offer although the deal carries on after the timer reaches zero, and that the effects of such dark patterns on buying behaviour are largely unknown. They present an experimental set-up and use it in an exploratory study with 245 participants, who completed a simulated online shopping task and then a questionnaire in one of three conditions: no special offer, a discount only, or a discount with a countdown timer. Both kinds of discount raised preference for the discounted product. Participants also reacted negatively to the deceptive timers, describing them as manipulative, immoral and unethical. The authors conclude that deceptive timers can create a fear of missing out and can make consumers averse to the offers and websites that use them.
Written from the openAlex abstract record read 2026-10-22.
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Buying Behavior and Experience.' Extended Abstracts of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 1-11. doi:10.1145/3544549.3585735