Designing information provision to serve as a reminder of altruistic benefits: A case study of the risks of air pollution caused by industrialization.

Hidenori Komatsu,Hirotada Ohashi,Hiromi Kubota,Nobuyuki Tanaka,Valerio Capraro

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0227024

Hidenori Komatsu, Hirotada Ohashi + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0227024

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Abstract

A well-known phenomenon is that humans perceive risks to threaten future generations as more dangerous in many cases. However, this tendency could be changed depending on certain conditions and could potentially be explained by the evolution of altruism. Our multi-agent simulation model, which was constructed to identify attributes contributing to subjective assessment of a risk source based on kin selection theory, showed that support from relatives can affect the agents’ subjective risk assessment. We utilize this insight, which has never been explored in the context of nudge, to show that real-world messages reminding respondents that they are supported by their relatives can moderate the perception of a risk source as extremely dangerous. A randomized control trial based on an internet questionnaire survey was conducted to identify the intervention effect of such messages, using air pollution caused by industrialization as the risk source for the case study. Our analysis suggests that messages moderate extreme attitudes. Presentation of additional visual information can boost the sense of familial support and increase the effect of a message compared with a message comprising only textual information. The attributes and personality traits of the respondents who are responsive to the intervention message are also discussed.

Highlights

Nudge is defined as “any aspect of the choice architecture that alters people’s behavior in a predictable way without forbidding any options or significantly changing their economic incentives.” In other words, it stimulates intuitive decision-making to help people make better choices [1]
We found that presenting additional visual information boosted the sense of familial support and the effect of the message, compared with a message comprising only textual information
The first control group received only a basic textual message about the positive points of industrialization and negative points of air pollution caused by industrialization

Summary

Introduction

Nudge is defined as “any aspect of the choice architecture that alters people’s behavior in a predictable way without forbidding any options or significantly changing their economic incentives.” In other words, it stimulates intuitive decision-making to help people make better choices [1]. It is important to consider salience, which is the basis for the phenomenon that human attention is drawn to what is novel and seems relevant [3], which

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