publications

@article{Obi2025-rs,

title = {Social media users engaging with matters of ethical concern "by other means"},

author = {Ike Obi and Colin M Gray and Shruthi Sai Chivukula and Ja-Nae Duane and Janna Johns and Matthew Will},

url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3757658},

doi = {10.1145/3757658},

issn = {2573-0142},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-01-01},

urldate = {2025-01-01},

journal = {Proceedings of the ACM on human-computer interaction},

volume = {9},

number = {7},

pages = {Article CSCW477},

publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},

abstract = {As deceptive design practices proliferate on technology platforms and increasingly threaten user agency

and well-being, concerned online communities are using social media platforms to discuss and challenge

these unethical practices. In this paper, we conducted a case study analysis of two subreddits, r/privacy and

r/assholedesign, to investigate the kinds of ethical concerns expressed within both subreddits, the strategies

employed to express those concerns, the goals participants hoped to achieve through participation, and the

community infrastructure these communities created to support their collective action against technology

manipulation. Our findings show that posts on these subreddits employ different strategies to discuss ethical and

value-related issues, revealing instances where community members engage in ethics “by other means”—raising

attention to problematic practices, identifying workarounds, and encouraging activism. The findings also

showed that members of both communities transformed individual frustrations with technology manipulation

into collective ethical action, involving value contestation and interaction criticism of problematic technology

artifacts mediated by the socio-technical community infrastructure they designed to support these objectives.

We conclude by highlighting opportunities for CSCW scholars to further encourage user engagement with

technology ethics concepts by considering the role of community infrastructure and the different rhetoric of

ethics that express different combinations of values and desired outcomes.},

keywords = {Asshole Design, Ethics and Values, Legal and Policy Perspectives, Social Media},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Gray2021b,

title = {End User Accounts of Dark Patterns as Felt Manipulation},

author = {Colin M Gray and Jingle Chen and Shruthi Sai Chivukula and Liyang Qu},

url = {https://doi.org/10.1145/3479516},

year  = {2021},

date = {2021-10-21},

urldate = {2021-10-21},

journal = {Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction},

volume = {5},

number = {CSCW2},

pages = {Article 372},

abstract = {Manipulation defines many of our experiences as a consumer, 

 including subtle nudges and overt advertising campaigns that 

 seek to gain our attention and money. With the advent of 

 digital services that can continuously optimize online 

 experiences to favor stakeholder requirements, increasingly 

 designers and developers make use of "dark 

 patterns"—forms of manipulation that prey on human 

 psychology—to encourage certain behaviors and discourage 

 others in ways that present unequal value to the end user. 

 In this paper, we provide an account of end user perceptions 

 of manipulation that builds on and extends notions of dark 

 patterns. We report on the results of a survey of users conducted in English and Mandarin Chinese (n=169), including 

 follow-up interviews from nine survey respondents. We used a 

 card sorting method to support thematic analysis of 

 responses from each cultural context, identifying both 

 qualitatively-supported insights to describe end users' felt 

 experiences of manipulative products, and a continuum of 

 manipulation. We further support this analysis through a 

 quantitative analysis of survey results and the presentation 

 of vignettes from the interviews. We conclude with 

 implications for future research, considerations for public 

 policy, and guidance on how to further empower and give 

 users autonomy in their experiences with digital services.},

keywords = {Asshole Design, Dark Patterns, Ethics and Values},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}