Thanks for that. Perhaps what I see in the anecdotal 'marketing clown' is a lack of human empathy, which is kind of the foundation stone for understanding 'human psychology'. Some people lack the wiring to care about others and see things from their point of view, whether it is the customer or the workmate. They also do not pick up on basic psychology, in my example there is little appreciation of how upsells work - there are facets and nuances to this that anyone who works in retail gets to grasp.
So it is a case of these people not knowing what they are doing, far from knowing the customer psychology and deliberately deceiving them, there is just no thought beyond doing some silly marketing campaign for the month end results.
What is also wrong with dark pattern is that the customers have to be churned - they will not be coming back after the customer service disaster that goes with the sale.
I don't care about quarterly results, I care about building a business that does not need marketing beyond word of mouth and white-hat SEO. So, in ten years time, customers will return for customer service provided to them, not to facilitate whatever silly offer is needed for my marketing clown's month end. I want customers to want to come back for a great product and great service, this is not compatible with 'dark patterns'.
We often give intellect where there is none. Notably in TV dramas where the 'killer' is supposed to be clever, in reality most people that commit crime really are not thinking at all, they have not thought it all through. 'Dark patterns' is a bit like that.
