TradingView: Emotional subscription cancellation

The cancellation process of TradingView is a great example of how companies manipulate users' emotions when cancelling their subscriptions. TradingView uses several dark patterns simultaneously to influence your decision and make you feel guilty about cancelling.

1. Pressure Through Urgency

TradingView pressures you with the title “Time to Decide,” creating a sense of urgency and forcing you to make a quick decision. This tactic leverages the psychological pressure of deadlines, making you feel that you must act immediately.

2. Misleading Button Styles

The interface design also plays a crucial role in manipulating user decisions. TradingView uses a primary style button labelled “Keep everything as it is,” which is visually prominent. In contrast, the “Yes, cancel me” button is styled with a secondary look and a red colour, which psychologically signifies danger or negative action. This subtle design choice makes you more inclined to keep your subscription.

3. Emotional Animation

One of the most striking dark patterns is the use of animation to enhance emotional impact. When you hover over the cancel button, an illustration of a hand playing Jenga moves toward the bottom, attempting to pull out the orange “key block.” This animation suggests that canceling your subscription is akin to pulling out a key piece, causing the entire structure to collapse.

4. Guilt-Inducing Visuals

If you proceed with the cancellation, the animation completes, and the hand pulls out the block, causing the Jenga tower to crash. This visual metaphor is designed to make you feel guilty and responsible for causing a negative outcome.

TradingView's cancellation process is riddled with dark patterns that exploit psychological triggers like urgency, visual prominence, and emotional manipulation. By recognizing these tactics, users can make more informed decisions and avoid being swayed by manipulative design choices.

Source: wmdavis910