Design That Enables Coercion

Some changes to an environment — tools, rules, or interface affordances — don't just persuade people, they make formerly optional behaviors practically compulsory by unlocking latent appetites or lowering costs to act. Across domains (games, markets, legal institutions), the same mechanism explains why small design choices can produce outsized social conflict or moral failure. — Naming and tracking when design choices tip from harmless persuasion into functional coercion helps regulators, platform designers, and civic leaders spot and prevent harms before they become entrenched.