{ "_description": "Generated from data/ — edit the sources, not this file. The agent access guide explains the evidence boundary of every field.", "schemaVersion": "1.0.0", "kind": "entry", "locale": "en", "id": "bait-and-switch", "name": { "zh": "诱饵转换", "en": "Bait and Switch" }, "page": "https://designvocabulary.com/en/entries/bait-and-switch/", "self": "https://designvocabulary.com/en/entries/bait-and-switch.json", "alternates": { "zh-CN": "https://designvocabulary.com/zh/entries/bait-and-switch.json", "en": "https://designvocabulary.com/en/entries/bait-and-switch.json" }, "site": { "catalogSchemaVersion": "0.1.0", "entries": 158, "index": "https://designvocabulary.com/en/entries/index.json", "query": "https://designvocabulary.com/api/query?lang=en", "guide": "https://designvocabulary.com/en/agents/", "llms": "https://designvocabulary.com/llms.txt" }, "provenance": { "sourceBacked": [ "entry.definition" ], "editorial": [ "entry.boundary", "entry.signature", "entry.when", "entry.when_not", "entry.tradeoff", "entry.comparison", "entry.rules", "entry.relations", "entry.implementationNote", "entry.anti" ], "scope": "Definitions reference these sources. Digital specimens, selection advice, relationships, and recipes are editorial work and have not been validated through user research.", "editorialStatus": "drafted", "specimenData": "fictional", "specimenNote": "Original fictional specimens. Definitions cite sources; usage advice and recipes are editorial.", "sources": [ { "id": "baitswitch-darkpatterns-org", "url": "https://www.darkpatterns.org/types-of-dark-pattern/bait-and-switch", "title": "darkpatterns.org · Bait and Switch (Harry Brignull)", "checkedAt": "2026-10-20", "archive": { "status": "pending", "confirmed": false, "url": null, "capturedAt": null, "lookupUrl": "https://web.archive.org/web/20261020*/https://www.darkpatterns.org/types-of-dark-pattern/bait-and-switch" } }, { "id": "baitswitch-16cfr238", "url": "https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/16/238.0", "title": "Cornell LII · 16 CFR § 238.0 – Bait advertising defined", "checkedAt": "2026-10-20", "archive": { "status": "pending", "confirmed": false, "url": null, "capturedAt": null, "lookupUrl": "https://web.archive.org/web/20261020*/https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/16/238.0" } }, { "id": "baitswitch-deceptive-design-types", "url": "https://www.deceptive.design/types", "title": "Deceptive Patterns · Types of deceptive pattern (Harry Brignull)", "checkedAt": "2026-10-20", "archive": { "status": "unconfirmed", "confirmed": false, "url": null, "capturedAt": null, "lookupUrl": "https://web.archive.org/web/20261020*/https://www.deceptive.design/types" } } ], "lists": [], "ordered": false, "listDisclaimer": "Seat numbers are editorial positions, not scores, rankings, or popularity measurements. A list that is not filled is left as it is." }, "entry": { "id": "bait-and-switch", "type": "anti", "name": { "zh": "诱饵转换", "en": "Bait and Switch" }, "aliases": [ "Bait-and-Switch", "Bait Advertising", "Misleading Action", "偷梁换柱", "诱售" ], "granularity": "flow", "intents": [ "audit-choice", "audit-pricing" ], "tags": [ "anti-pattern", "deceptive design", "misleading", "control semantics", "marketing" ], "definition": "A person acts to do one thing and something else, something they did not want, happens instead: a button, link, or offer looks like one thing before they act and turns into another afterward.", "boundary": "The mechanism here is that the outcome is swapped between before and after the action. It differs from disguised ads: a disguised ad passes an advertisement off as another interface element, so what people click was never what it seemed; in a bait and switch, people click a genuinely conventional control or a genuinely displayed offer, and only the outcome is replaced. It also differs from hidden costs: there, the full price of the same product is disclosed late in the flow while the product stays the same; a bait and switch replaces the outcome itself — the advertised item turns out to be unavailable once people arrive and the page recommends a pricier substitute, or a “close” button is turned into “agree.” What separates it from a Norman door is intent: a Norman door’s mismatch between cue and action usually comes from oversight, while a bait and switch uses people’s trust in convention to obtain an outcome they would not choose. The name also has a definition in commercial regulation (for example the US Federal Trade Commission’s guides against bait advertising); this entry borrows it for the equivalent mechanism at the interface level and makes no legal judgment about any specific case.", "signature": [ "A conventional control, such as a close button, is given an opposite or unrelated outcome", "An advertised offer becomes unavailable once people click through, and the page immediately recommends something else", "People discover only after completing the action that the outcome differs from what they expected" ], "when": [ "Auditing whether offers advertised on landing pages and pop-ups are actually available when people arrive", "Auditing whether each control’s actual outcome matches its appearance and convention" ], "when_not": [ "As a way to raise conversion or push upgrades", "Changing a control’s or an offer’s actual outcome because “it says so in the small print”" ], "tradeoff": "The repair is to make what people see before acting match what they get after: an advertised offer is either available or states its stock and eligibility limits where it is advertised, and conventional controls do only the conventional thing. The cost is losing the conversions won through mistaken clicks or by “getting people in first,” but those conversions already come with complaints, refunds, and lost trust.", "comparison": { "focus": "After people act, the outcome turns out to be something else", "mechanism": "Leading people to act with a trusted control or offer, then swapping the outcome", "cost": "People get an outcome they did not intend and stop trusting the interface’s conventions" }, "sources": [ { "id": "baitswitch-darkpatterns-org", "title": "darkpatterns.org · Bait and Switch (Harry Brignull)", "url": "https://www.darkpatterns.org/types-of-dark-pattern/bait-and-switch", "claim": "The page (created by Harry Brignull, edited by Alexander Darlo in 2019) defines bait and switch as the user setting out to do one thing while a different, undesirable thing happens instead, and gives the 2016 Windows 10 upgrade pop-ups as its example, in which the “X” button at the top right was changed from its usual meaning of “close” to “yes, I do want to upgrade.” The original URL no longer works (it returned 404 on the check date); the content was checked against an Internet Archive capture from 31 December 2019. This entry paraphrases its definition from it.", "checkedAt": "2026-10-20", "archive": { "lookupUrl": "https://web.archive.org/web/20261020*/https://www.darkpatterns.org/types-of-dark-pattern/bait-and-switch", "status": "pending", "checkedAt": "2026-10-20T08:00:33.259Z", "error": "save-request-failed", "jobId": "spn2-e0b9477b217a4a678e416b7f3731dd1ca956f4b7" } }, { "id": "baitswitch-16cfr238", "title": "Cornell LII · 16 CFR § 238.0 – Bait advertising defined", "url": "https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/16/238.0", "claim": "Section 238.0 of Part 238 of Title 16 of the US Code of Federal Regulations (Guides Against Bait Advertising) defines bait advertising as an alluring but insincere offer to sell a product or service which the advertiser does not intend or want to sell, whose purpose is to switch consumers from the advertised merchandise to something else, usually at a higher price or on terms more advantageous to the advertiser. This entry cites it for the term’s meaning in commercial regulation and to support the typical form in which an advertised offer is unavailable and a substitute is pushed instead.", "checkedAt": "2026-10-20", "archive": { "lookupUrl": "https://web.archive.org/web/20261020*/https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/16/238.0", "status": "pending", "checkedAt": "2026-10-20T08:00:37.463Z", "error": "save-request-failed", "jobId": "spn2-f3081bc0c403f6a1f45926f381a4bccd5d5fb99d" } }, { "id": "baitswitch-deceptive-design-types", "title": "Deceptive Patterns · Types of deceptive pattern (Harry Brignull)", "url": "https://www.deceptive.design/types", "claim": "This site is the current home of Harry Brignull’s catalog of deceptive design; on the check date its list held 18 types, including hidden costs and disguised ads, but no longer listed bait and switch separately. This entry cites it to show that bait and switch comes from the catalog’s earlier taxonomy and that its nearest current types are hidden costs and disguised ads, which is why the entry has to draw its boundary against both.", "checkedAt": "2026-10-20", "archive": { "lookupUrl": "https://web.archive.org/web/20261020*/https://www.deceptive.design/types", "status": "unconfirmed", "checkedAt": "2026-10-20T08:00:39.564Z", "error": "save-request-failed" } } ], "relations": [ { "target": "disguised-ads", "kind": "related", "condition": "A person clicked what looked like an ordinary interface element", "reason": "A disguised ad fakes the element itself, while a bait and switch swaps the outcome of a real element; both exploit trust in interface conventions but should be recorded separately.", "basis": "editorial" }, { "target": "hidden-costs", "kind": "related", "condition": "An advertised low price changes during the flow", "reason": "Hidden costs disclose the full price of the same product late, while a bait and switch replaces the advertised product itself; first check whether the product is still the same one.", "basis": "editorial" }, { "target": "norman-door", "kind": "related", "condition": "A control’s actual outcome does not match its appearance", "reason": "Both break the link between appearance and outcome; the difference is intent — a Norman door usually comes from oversight, while a bait and switch deliberately uses convention to obtain an outcome people would not choose.", "basis": "editorial" }, { "target": "consistency", "kind": "conflicts_when", "condition": "A conventional control is given a different outcome", "reason": "People operate by convention, and once a convention has been exploited they have to doubt every similar control before using it.", "basis": "editorial" }, { "target": "trust-calibration", "kind": "conflicts_when", "condition": "People find that an outcome differs from what they expected before acting", "reason": "One swap is enough to lower trust in the whole product, damaging its honest controls and offers along with it.", "basis": "editorial" } ], "rules": [ { "when": "A control or offer shows a certain outcome before people act", "instruction": "Make sure the actual outcome afterward matches it; never change a conventional control, such as close, to perform another action.", "strength": "must", "basis": "editorial" }, { "when": "An advertised offer has stock or eligibility limits", "instruction": "State the limits where the offer is advertised; when the offer is unavailable, say so clearly instead of moving people straight to another product.", "strength": "recommend", "basis": "editorial" } ], "anti": { "harm": "It uses people’s trust in conventions and advertising to give them an outcome they would not choose, and leaves the interface’s conventions no longer credible", "repair": "Make what people see before acting match what they get after: controls do only the conventional thing, and advertised offers are either available or state their limits where advertised, with a clear notice when unavailable." }, "demo": null, "version": "0.1.0", "editorialStatus": "drafted", "requirements": [], "demoCapabilities": [], "implementationNote": "This is a warning entry and not a recommendation, and it makes no legal judgment about any specific case; the pop-up and offer in the illustration are invented. When auditing, click every promotional entry point and close control one by one, record the expected and the actual outcome of each, and review every place where the two differ.", "image": { "src": "/images/bait-and-switch.webp", "alt": "A sketch: a fictional pop-up marked FIELDNOTES with the familiar close cross in its top-right corner and a cursor clicking it; an arrow points to the next screen on the right, which shows not the page behind the closed pop-up but an install panel with a progress bar; a grey placeholder line along the bottom of the pop-up stands for easily missed small print." }, "searchTerms": [ "反模式", "欺骗性设计", "误导", "控件语义", "营销" ] } }