Tietgen Award for Sonja Perković for Manipulative Design

It may not be the Nobel Prize, but it is a prestigious award – Croatian scientist Sonja Perković, who is also a visiting professor at the Faculty of Economics in Zagreb (Department of Economic Theory), has won the prestigious Danish Tietgen Award and a gold medal for research in the field of consumer behavior. Our scientist Dr. Sonja Perković, an associate professor at Aarhus University in Denmark, is the recipient of this year’s Tietgen Award and gold medal, one of the most esteemed Danish recognitions for young researchers in the social and human sciences. The award, amounting to 500,000 Danish kroner (approximately 67,000 euros), is granted for exceptional contributions to science, collaboration with businesses, and society.

Award for Quality over Quantity

Perković will use the funds to initiate new research on how the design of digital platforms – such as the use of colors, the order of options, highlighting “best offers” or notifications – affects users’ visual attention and leads them to spend more time and money than they planned. Manipulative digital design costs consumers in the EU at least 7.9 billion euros each year, making the topic extremely relevant at a time when the European Union is preparing a new Digital Fairness Act.

Perković believes that this research could help regulators and relevant institutions better understand the mechanisms of manipulative design and contribute to the creation of digital environments that protect users while maintaining healthy market competition.

Sonja Perković has been living and working in Denmark for years, where she is recognized as one of the most promising young scientists in the field of consumer behavior. Her works have been published in leading international journals, and she actively collaborates with regulatory bodies and consumer protection organizations.

An truly impressive achievement for our young scientist, so we contacted her for a bit more detail. She says that the award is a great recognition, as the academic world is particularly demanding in the early stages of a career.

Young scientists often feel that the value of their work is measured by the number of published papers and citations, while publishing in the most prestigious journals seems almost unattainable. At the beginning of my career, I chose a different path. I worked on topics that truly interested me and that I believed could have social value, so I prioritized quality over quantity. This carried a certain risk, as such an approach yields visible results in a CV more slowly. That is why this award means so much to me, as it represents confirmation that this path was the right one and that my work has been recognized. Professionally, the award allows me to initiate a new research project and deepen collaborations with regulators and businesses in Denmark, and I would like to expand this to Croatia. I hope this project will become the basis for a longer-term research direction that will contribute to a better understanding of consumer behavior in digital environments and the development of practices that help people make better decisions – says Perković, who believes that the award could open doors for more guest lectures at the faculty in Zagreb, stronger collaboration, and perhaps opportunities for students who wish to pursue a doctorate in Denmark. She would like to build a bridge between the two systems, as there is vast potential for knowledge exchange.

How Digital Platforms ‘Push’ Us to Buy

With the prize money, she will finance research on how digital platforms direct our attention and how certain visual elements lead us to make quicker and often impulsive decisions. She wants to discover when design helps users and when it leads them to choices they later regret. The goal is to develop knowledge that will help create digital environments that are fair to the user while simultaneously supporting healthy market competition.

Easier said than done, as the world has been living through an intertwined global crisis for five years. And in a crisis, the price undoubtedly has the final word.

For the past five years, consumers have been living in continuous crises from the pandemic and inflation to disrupted supply chains and war conflicts. In such conditions, price becomes the key criterion, while topics like sustainability or local origin are often pushed to the background. When people are mentally and financially exhausted, they are more likely to reach for the simplest solution, the one that requires the least cognitive effort. Low costs of global products remain extremely attractive to consumers. In reality, price almost always wins over all other characteristics, unless the right angle of approach to the consumer is hit. In the EU, and especially in Denmark, this angle increasingly comes through emphasizing health risks. There is currently a strong focus on harmful chemicals in products from China, especially from platforms like Temu and Shein. These chemicals, such as PFAS, BPA, and phthalates, are linked to hormonal disruptions, reduced fertility, and increased risk of certain types of cancer. My impression is that the Croatian market and regulations still do not perceive the problem in its true severity.

When Emotion Breaks Through the Noise of Information

In one part of my previous research, I dealt with how to communicate risks so that consumers take them seriously. We have shown that affective heuristics are an extremely powerful tool. When information triggers an emotional response, people have a heightened perception of risk, especially on topics such as chemicals in products or sustainability. In other words, for consumers to truly change their behavior, the message must emotionally resonate with them because rational arguments often get lost in the noise of everyday life – explains Perković.

However, the question of how to raise consumer awareness and how companies can adapt to today’s consumer is not simple. Consumers live in an environment marked by large amounts of information and a constant struggle for their attention.

Companies can adapt to this by respecting that attention and reducing the cognitive load on customers. This involves clearer information, simpler decisions, and transparent offerings. When people feel that a company is making their choice easier rather than harder, trust increases. Global platforms like Temu or Shein can attract with price, but local and smaller companies have an advantage in what customers increasingly seek: product safety, faster and more reliable service, and authentic communication. These are values that are difficult to replicate on a global scale and that give local companies real space for differentiation. In other words, companies that respect consumer attention and communicate clearly can build trust that becomes their strongest long-term advantage – asserts Perković.

So, while we await her future research, it is good to remember that with every purchase, traps lie in the details – colors, button positions, the way ‘best offers’ are displayed – all of this steals and directs our attention, consequently our money that we may not have intended to spend. In an increasingly complex digital world, little in digital (and physical) retail is the result of our free will. The problem is that we, as consumers, are not even aware of this. Therefore, every research that illuminates the dark corners of the digital world is desperately needed.