The framing of information nudge and students effort: A behavioral economics approach

Abstract

One of the important fields for achieving the goals of the higher education system is to use new methods to influence students' motivation. Therefore, the main goal of this study is to investigate the impact of the framing of information nudge on students' efforts using the behavioral economics approach, taking into account the theories of social psychology. To investigate this goal, a 2*2*2 factorial model including; two levels of framing effect (positive or negative), two levels of regulatory focus (promotion or prevention) and two levels of test difficulty (difficult or easy) were considered. The independent variables of this study are the negative frame, the promotion focus and the difficulty of the test and the dependent variable is the anticipated effort in a hypothetical exam. The random sampling of this research included 400 students of Ilam and Allameh Tabatabai University. The results of the estimation of the ordinary least squares model showed that the promotion focus frame increases students' effort compared to the prevention focus frame. The negative frame increases student effort relative to the positive frame, but without controlling for regulatory focus, it has no independent effect on student effort. The results of the estimation of interaction variables also showed that the variable of negative frame * promotion focus has a negative and significant coefficient. This result shows that the joint condition of negative frame and promotion focus increases students' effort less than negative frame and prevention focus. In other words, the negative frame increases students' effort both in the promotion focus and in the prevention focus, but the effect of the negative frame is greater in the prevention focus. It also confirms that students experience regulatory fit under the common conditions of prevention focus and negative frame, but regulatory fit is not confirmed under the common conditions of promotion focus and positive frame. In order to strengthen students' motivation and performance, policy makers and planners in higher education can use behavioral economics tools such as framing of information nudge appropriate to subjects such as exam preparation, education plan, choosing a field at higher levels of education, etc.