Irresistible Apps: Motivational Design Patterns for Apps, Games, and Web-based Communities

Chapter     11

Social Capital Dark Patterns

Social capital is the benefit we get from being in social networks, and it’s something we value. We like having friends to share our lives with. Our friends have value for us in the same way other resources like time and money do. While social capital cannot be spent like these other resources, people put their social benefits at risk if they perform actions that could lead them to lose status or even membership from their social network. Many applications are looking to become social activities, and the dark patterns in this chapter are ones that put a user’s social capital in jeopardy. If users stand the risk of losing their social standing, or feel like they’re interacting with software out of social ...