Dark patterns have received criticism due to their manipulative influence on user behavior. Despite this criticism, e-commerce websites persist in utilizing these techniques to increase their sales. In pursuit of maximizing profits, companies purposefully employ more targeted approaches when designing their websites. Moreover, prior research has shown that men's and women's behaviour and cognitive functions influence how men and women shop online. As a result of these potential differences, websites can use dark patterns with gender targeted methods to trick their users.

In this study, first a content analysis of 30 Swedish e-commerce websites was performed to identify different types of dark pattens. Next, a thematic analysis was employed to discern similarities and disparities among these websites. 

The survey findings revealed that Swedish e-commerce websites employed certain types of dark patterns to a greater extent than others. The three most frequent dark patterns that were identified were visual interference, nagging and low stock message. The distribution of dark patterns showed some disparities between websites for men and websites for women in terms of the number of dark patterns identified. The results also showed several similarities, both infrequency and how dark patterns are designed on websites for men and websites for women. 

There are indications that behavioural research on gender can be a contributing factor to how and to what degree dark patterns are used in Swedish fashion online stores. However, it is not entirely clear whether gender alone is the cause of the differences that emerged in these results.