The Impact of Online Advertising on Consumer Choice: Consumption Traps and Digital Marketing Ethics

Abstract

This paper explores "Dark Patterns" and behavioral manipulation mechanisms in digital marketing, revealing how enterprises use algorithm-driven consumption traps to exploit scarcity bias and cognitive load, thereby interfering with consumers' rational decision-making. This study finds that manipulative interface designs, such as biased default options and layered information concealment, violate the transparency principles of marketing ethics. Meanwhile, the misuse of data through cross-platform tracking and real-time behavioral feedback forms a "data-manipulation closed loop", establishing dynamic pressure-applying mechanisms and infringing on privacy. At the theoretical level, these digital marketing strategies rooted in behavioral economics' choice form a pervasive behavioral intervention ecosystem, which systematically undermines the information transparency and autonomous decision-making conditions required by Rational Choice Theory (RCT). From a practical perspective, this research proposes a three-tier governance framework. Firstly, enterprises need to standardize policies, clarify information disclosure, prohibit bundled authorization, and establish automatic data deletion mechanisms. Secondly, the industry should achieve co-governance through a blacklist system and implement joint punishment for non-compliant enterprises. Thirdly, addiction-inducing metrics need to be excluded, and priority should be given to matching users' genuine needs in technological applications. The ultimate goal of digital marketing should be to build long-term consumer trust relationships. Through enterprise standardization, practitioners' responsibility awareness, and industry co-governance, it returns to the essence of serving user needs and achieves a win-win situation for both commercial and social values.