Boosting college prospects among low-income students: Using self-affirmation to trigger motivation and a behavioral ladder to channel it.

Abstract

Access to college for students from low-income families is disproportionately low because of many factors. A targeted intervention that addresses social psychological factors is introduced in the present paper. It is hypothesized that the steps needed to go to college-applying for college and applying for financial aid-can be blocked by both psychological and behavioral friction. The psychological friction arises from the threats to self-integrity that low-income students experience when considering attending college. Behavioral friction takes the form of institutional and bureaucratic barriers that students must overcome to apply to college and for financial aid. Two interventions are tested separately and in combination to address these dual barriers. A self-affirmation intervention in which students wrote about important values aimed to alleviate threats to self-integrity; and a behavioral ladder intervention that provided a series of timely reminders or "nudges" and accompanying strategies to students through a mobile application (app) at key decision points along the college admissions process addressed behavioral friction. Students who received the behavioral ladder made further progress along the college admission pipeline based on official records, an effect that was apparent only in the affirmation condition. These results illustrate the efficacy of combining "wise" interventions to address discrete barriers, the importance of tailoring and timing intervention content to key points of friction, and the potential of mobile technology to facilitate both objectives. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).