Dark patterns – design interfaces or features that subtly manipulate people in making suboptimal decisions – are ubiquitous especially in e-commerce websites. Yet, there is little research on the effectiveness of dark patterns, and even lesser studies on testing interventions that can help mitigate their influence on consumers. To that end, we conducted two experiments. The first experiment tests the effectiveness of different dark patterns within a hypothetical single product online shopping context. Results show that, indeed, dark patterns increase the purchase impulsivity across all dark patterns, relative to the control. The second experiment tests the effectiveness of three behaviorally informed interventions on four different dark patterns also in a hypothetical online shopping scenario, but this time offering multiple products instead of a single product. Between-subject analysis shows that not all interventions are equally effective, with uneven impact across dark patterns. However, within-subject results indicate that all interventions significantly reduce purchase impulsivity pre- versus post-intervention, indicating that any intervention is better than none when it comes to combating dark patterns. We then end by discussing the policy implications of our results.

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This report was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States Government. Neither the United States Government nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government or any agency thereof. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government or any agency thereof.

Abstract. An edge plasma current density diagnostic employing a neutralized lithium ion beam system has been installed on the DIII-D tokamak. The lithium beam control system is designed around a GE Fanuc 90-30 series PLC and Cimplicity@ HMI (Human Machine Interface) software. The control system operates and supervises a collection of commercial and in-house designed high voltage power supplies for beam acceleration and focusing, filament and bias power supplies for ion creation, neutralization, vacuum, triggering, and safety interlocks. This paper provides an overview of the control system, while highlighting innovative aspects including its remote operation, pulsed source heating and pulsed neutralizer heating, optimizing beam regulation, and beam ramping, ending with a discussion of its performance.

The Fast Wave Current Drive (FWCD) system at DIII-D has increased its available radio frequency (RF) power capabilities with the addition of two new high power transmitters along with their associated transmission line systems. A Sun Sparc-10 workstation, functioning as the FWCD operator console, is being used to control transmitter operating parameters and transmission line tuning parameters, along with acquiring data and making data available for integration into the DIII-D data acquisition system. Labview, a graphical user interface application, is used to manage and control the above processes. This paper will discuss the three primary branches of the FWCD computer control system: transmitter control, transmission line tuning control, and FWCD data acquisition. The main control program developed uses VXI, GPIB, CAMAC, Serial, and Ethernet protocols to blend the three branches together into one cohesive system. The control of the transmitters utilizes VXI technology to communicate with the transmitter's digital interface. A GPIB network allows for communication with various instruments and CAMAC crate controllers. CAMAC crates are located at each phaseshifterhtub-tuner station and are used to digitize transmission line parameters along with transmission line fault detection during RF transmission. The phase-shifterhtub-tuner stations are located through out the DIII-D facility and are controlled from the FWCD operator console via the workstation's Serial port. The Sun workstation has an Ethernet connection allowing for the utilization of the DIII-D data acquisition "Open System" architecture and of course providing communication with the rest of the world.