Effective Nudge Research Articles

Frail Older Adults' Needs and Preferences for Mobile Health Exercise Interventions Guided by Nudge Theory: AQualitative Analysis.

To explore frail older adults' preferences and needs regarding mobile health (mHealth) exercise interventions in China. Additionally, it sought to identify the nudge strategies necessary for initiating and sustaining exercise behaviours among frail older adults. A qualitative study. The semi-structured interviews were conducted between April and May 2024 from two communities in Changsha, China. The data were analysed using a deductive framework analysis aligned to nudge theory, and an inductive thematic analysis to gather relevant needs and preferences. This study involved 14 participants with pre-frailty or frailty, aged 60-82 years (median age of 64 years). While participants were generally receptive to new technologies, lower levels of health literacy and competing priorities often hindered their participation. Three primary functionality requirements were as follows. (1) Profession engagement: tailored exercise prescription, professional and timely feedback and guidance; (2) personalised knowledge encompassing pain management, successful cases and inspiration; (3) beneficial, tailored, dynamic, fragmented, challenging exercise courses. Participants showed positive attitudes towards simplification nudges, gamification nudges, social nudges, trustworthy nudges, reminder nudges, economic nudges, feedback nudges and pre-commitment nudges. Addressing privacy concerns was essential to build trust and acceptance among older adults. These findings emphasised the importance of designing mHealth interventions that address frail older adults' specific needs and preferences while incorporating effective nudge strategies to promote engagement and adherence. Future researchers should explore wearables, ChatGPT language models, virtual coaching assistants, exercise snack to further optimise the experience and analyse the effects of nudges in mHealth exercise interventions among older adults. Exercise systems or app development for frail older adults should meet three basic functionality and essential nudge strategies. The consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative research (COREQ) guidelines were used for reporting. Older adults' engagement and interview data contribute a lot.

Developing nudges, nudge+ and boosts to support climate change mitigation in practice – A case study on ash fertilization among Finnish private forest owners

Forests are crucial for climate change mitigation as they absorb and store large amounts of carbon dioxide. In Finland, ash fertilization of drained peatland forests has been identified as part of the climate change mitigation strategy, yet it is implemented notably less than it could be. Therefore, this study aimed to identify most effective nudges, nudge+ and boosts that could steer Finnish non-industrial private forest (NIPF) owners to adopt ash fertilization in their forest. Semi-structured interviews with 19 NIPF owners were analyzed using the Behaviour change wheel to identify key factors influencing owners’ willingness to engage in ash fertilization. Most factors raised by forest owners were related to reflective motivation encompassing both drivers and barriers to practicing ash fertilization. We also identified possible cognitive biases that were influencing decisions. The suggested nudges, nudge+ and boosts address both the specific concerns of the forest owners and the underlying heuristics. For example, framing ash fertilization as a standard procedure of professional forest management and including it into forest management plans could facilitate overcoming status quo bias that may hinder the adoption of novel forest management practices. These findings are directly applicable for creating nudges, nudge+ and boosts on ash fertilization for experienced, professionally managing NIPF owners with larger forest estates. Our study also offers an approach that can be adapted for broader application in environmental and climate-friendly decision-making, contributing to the growing body of literature on the intersection of behavioral science and environmental management.

Norm From The Top: A Social Norm Nudge To Promote Low-Practiced Behaviors Without Boomerang Effect

Social norms are an essential determinant of conformity in decision-making, a powerful nudge for helping people adopt prosocial behavior. Informing people that most of their peers behave virtuously encourages them to improve their own behavior. Nevertheless, social norm mechanisms are efficient if the proportion of people who already act prosocially is sufficient, otherwise, the norm can lead to a ”boomerang effect” namely, this induces a person who acts prosocially to abandon her previous choice since she is informed that the majority does not support her prosocial behavior. The purpose of this paper is to develop a new norm that can be efficient even when implemented in behaviors practiced by a minority of people, by contrast to current social norm nudges. In our experiment, we create a new type of feedback that includes descriptive and injunctive norms and then observe whether they are more effective than standard social norm feedback. This new feedback, named ”Norm From The Top”, provides information based on the most altruistic people in the population. The experiment was run online due to the sanitary conditions in 2021. 203 participants were recruited from Cirano (Montreal, Quebec). Cirano is an interuniversity center, multidisciplinary and intersectoral. The sample comprises 120 women and 83 men (Average age = 37.2; SD = 10.5). In the experiment, participants were randomly exposed to a social norm that elicited prosocial behavior from other participants, and we observed whether the group exposed to the Norm From The Top increased their prosocial behavior compared to the other groups. Specifically, participants were asked whether they were willing to complete surveys without compensation. This study found that this norm acted as an effective nudge, increasing the average decision regarding prosocial behavior and addressing the boomerang effect issue. The Norm From The Top sets a high reference point compared to the standard norm and does not induce a reduction of contributions higher than this reference point. In contrast, the standard norm does not have a significant effect due to the boomerang effect and leads to a concentration of the contributions towards the average, resulting in an inefficient nudge in this context. These results show the potential of the Norm From The Top enforcement to promote low-practiced prosocial behaviors, thereby increasing the range of prosocial behaviors that social norm nudges can reinforce. Applying this norm to different types of prosocial behaviors in field experiments would allow for observing its impact on actual behaviors and assessing the external validity of this new instrument before making it available to policymakers.

Which energy labels should we use to expedite the transition to electric vehicles?

In recent years, numerous countries have enacted legislation to halt fossil-fueled vehicle sales within five to 10 years. With shrinking global markets for these vehicles, manufacturers are increasingly motivated to redirect them towards nations with less stringent regulations, using attractive prices and other tactics. However, the sale of new fossil-fueled vehicles poses a public challenge as they will remain in use for years. Consequently, reducing the likelihood of consumers purchasing new fossil-fueled vehicles in favor of electric vehicles is crucial in all countries, particularly those with less stringent regulations, to meet emission goals. Efforts to promote electric vehicle adoption through policy measures fall short due to underestimated cognitive biases and consumer behavior impacts. We contribute to the literature by bridging the gap between human behavioral studies and environmental policy. We incorporate choice architecture into energy labels to determine which information architecture regarding energy costs is an effective nudge in increasing electric vehicle purchase intentions. Our experiment finds that labels framing energy costs as ‘expenditure,’ rather than ‘savings,’ are more effective in increasing the intent to purchase an electric vehicle. Additionally, we find that a graphical display of expenditure was not effective in influencing purchase intentions. Policymakers can use similar choice architecture tools to encourage electric vehicle adoption, expediting the transition to electric vehicles and achieving national environmental goals.

How does abstract and concrete garbage classification signage influence waste sorting behavior?

Despite the issuance of standardized garbage classification signage, the rate of garbage classification in China remains low. We conducted a pair of laboratory experiments to explore the cognitive processing differences between abstract (including recyclables, hazardous garbage, and food signs) and concrete (including paper, plastic, glass, metal, textiles, batteries, household chemicals, tubes, and food signs) classification signs. We tested a nudging strategy to enhance garbage classification behavior. In Experiment 1, we divided garbage classification signs into two conditions: an abstract condition (comprising abstract signs) and a concrete condition (comprising concrete signs). The Go/No Go task was used to simulate garbage classification behavior. Participants were instructed to press a key when the garbage stimulus matched the classification signs (Go condition) and to refrain from pressing the key when there was a mismatch (No Go condition). The results showed that responses under the concrete condition were expedited compared to those under the abstract condition. This suggests that concrete signage requires less cognitive exertion, thereby enhancing the efficiency of waste classification. In Experiment 2, we optimized the existing bin signage, which predominantly featured abstract signs (traditional condition), and transformed it into a bin signage that emphasized concrete classification signs. These concrete signs were strategically positioned on the upper part of the bins to draw attention (nudging condition). The results suggested that the nudging condition required fewer cognitive resources than the traditional condition, which in turn increased the efficiency of processing garbage classification. This study not only validates the effects of concreteness in garbage classification but also provides effective nudge strategies to complement existing garbage classification management policy tools in a realistic Chinese context.

Crowdsourcing as a tool for creating effective nudges: An example for financial oversubscription.

Creating effective nudges, or interventions that encourage people to make choices that increase their welfare, is difficult to execute well. Recent work on megastudies, massive field experiments that test many interventions simultaneously, reveals that nudge effectiveness both varies widely and is difficult for experts to predict. We propose an Iterative Crowdsourcing Procedure, which uses insights from members of the target population to generate and preselect nudges prior to testing them in a field experiment. This technique can supplement existing methods or stand alone as a way to generate conditions for testing in a high-quality field experiment. We test the effectiveness of this method in addressing a challenge to effective financial management: consumer oversubscription. We first document that people have more subscriptions than they think they have and that enhancing subscription awareness makes people want to cancel some subscriptions. We then use our crowdsourcing procedure to motivate people toward subscription awareness in a field experiment (N = 4,412,113) with a large bank. We find that the crowdsourced nudges outperform those generated by the bank, demonstrating that the Iterative Crowdsourcing Procedure is a useful way to generate effective nudges.

Are Text Pages an Effective Nudge to Increase Attendance at Internal Medicine Morning Report Conferences? A Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial.

Despite the importance of medical educational conferences, low attendance remains an issue. The utility of reminder text pages as a behavioral nudge to increase attendance is unknown. Our objective was to determine whether reminder text pages increase daily morning report attendance. We conducted a multiple-crossover cluster randomized controlled trial among medical students and internal medicine interns and residents (learners) at the Veteran Affairs Boston Healthcare System during the 2019 to 2020 academic year. During intervention periods, all residents and interns received a text page reminder 5 minutes before the upcoming 8:00 am morning report conference; no page was sent during control periods. The primary outcome was conference attendance 10 minutes after the start of the conference. The study period included 85 morning report conferences, which 211 unique learners were eligible to attend; outcome data were available for 100% of eligible learners. On days when no page was sent, 44.4% of eligible learners attended the conference by 8:10 am ; on days when a reminder page was sent, 49.5% of eligible learners attended (P = .007). Accounting for clustering within individuals and controlling for date and team, the adjusted risk difference in morning report attendance associated with a reminder page was 4.0% (95% CI, 0.5%-7.6%) compared with no reminder page. No effect modification by overnight admissions was detected. Our results suggest that daily reminder pages may result in a small increase in conference attendance. Whether this small increase is educationally significant will vary across training programs that apply this strategy.

Nudges for responsible finance? A survey of interventions targeted at financial decision making

AbstractIn a comprehensive review, we investigate how nudges can help financial decisionmakers allocate funds according to ethical considerations to promote sustainable development. We begin by identifying the main nudge frameworks and highlighting their many similarities, including the use of default options, making information more salient, and manipulating the framing of incentives. While nudges have been used in personal finance primarily to promote saving for retirement or avoiding credit card debt, they can also encourage socially responsible investment (SRI). We propose potential nudges in SRI and provide a primer on nudge implementation by reviewing methods for selecting effective nudges and ensuring their ethical acceptability.

Can we 'Nudge' people to better waste separation behaviours? Policy interventions mediated by habit, sense of separation efficiency and external environmental perceptions.

This article studies the impact of intervention measures with nudge characteristics on residents' waste separation behaviours under the background of new 'Beijing Municipal Regulation on Domestic Waste Management'. We analyse whether and how nudge interventions affect residents' waste separation behaviours through the Ordered Logit model and mediation analysis. Our research results show that three nudge tools, namely, the timing and fixed-point separation system, the cleaning staff guidance system and the uniform clothing and styling, can effectively promote residents from low classification levels to high classification levels. In the process of nudging interventions, factors such as residents' waste separation habit, external environmental perception and the sense of separation efficiency play a mediating role. Our study's findings suggest that effective nudge tools are helpful in cultivating residents' separation habits and hence we recommend that policy makers promote and popularise them in their attempt to improve domestic waste management behaviours.

Behavioural nudges for water conservation in unequal settings: Experimental evidence from Cape Town

This study addresses the use of behavioural nudges in reducing households' use of water across a large sample (>360,000 households) of domestic users. The impacts of several behavioural interventions are estimated for residential water consumption in Cape Town, South Africa, during the onset of a three-year drought considered to have been the worst in a century. Since income distribution is a key issue in South Africa, the paper also examines whether average treatment effects are heterogeneous across the income spectrum. Behavioural messages did affect water use, with an average reduction of between 0.6 and 1.3 per cent across the various treatments after 6 months. The most effective nudges were those that officially recognised a household's water conservation efforts (social recognition) and those that appealed to households to act in the public interest (public good). Between-treatment test results indicate that social recognition significantly outperformed other treatments. Treatment effects were sensitive to income distribution; specifically, wealthier households were more responsive to social incentives such as public recognition of water conservation, appeals to the public good, and social norm comparisons, while financial feedback nudges also drive behaviour in the low-middle income range. Households in the lowest income group were unresponsive to the nudges. Overall, behavioural nudges played a role in reducing households' water consumption in the City of Cape Town and particularly in wealthier households that typically consume significantly more water. Our results show that the long-term reductions in water usage were over and above those attributable to rising tariffs and increasingly stringent physical restrictions and campaigns introduced as the drought unfolded.

Factors of effectiveness of green nudges for more eco-responsible behaviour – Systematic review and research directions

Considering the rise of green nudges, our objective is to determine the factors of their effectiveness through a systematic review, following the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) method, which analyses 28 articles and 73 pro-environmental nudges. Following a redefinition of the concept and a categorisation based on the construal-level theory of psychological distance (opposing the lever of the ‘how’ to that of the ‘why’ of choice), the effectiveness of green nudges is analysed. A relationship of dependence appears between the (in)effectiveness of nudges and (1) the levers, mechanisms and techniques mobilised; (2) the visibility of the behaviour by others; (3) the field of application; and (4) the geographical area. These analyses and the limitations of the work reviewed provide a basis to propose avenues for research. New theoretical insights and recommendations are provided in favour of more effective nudges for the adoption of ecological and responsible behaviours.

Measuring "Nudgeability": Development of a Scale on Susceptibility to Physical Activity Nudges among College Students.

Background: The current college lifestyle create more opportunities for students to develop unhealthy behaviors, especially physical inactivity. Nudging could be an effective tool to improve physical activity behaviors by changing college settings. One-nudge-fits-all leads to ineffective nudges, so it is necessary to develop a reliable and valid instrument capable of measuring the “nudgeability” of physical activity nudges for college students, which is for a higher level of nudge efficacy. Method: Developing the College Physical Activity Nudges Susceptibility Scale (CPANSS) that integrated the nudge method with the Likert scale, which is the first attempt to measure the susceptibility to nudges directly by a scale. There are four steps for developing CPANSS, including Scale Dimensions, Item Generation, Exploratory Factor Analysis (n = 294), and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (n = 293) with appropriate procedures. Results: The five-factor 21-item CPANSS with good reliability and validity fitted the data reasonably well. Conclusion: The CPANSS was to provide a new tool for policymakers to design effective nudges in changing and promoting physical activity in college settings, and to provide a method for scholars to promote other healthy behaviors for different target groups.

The Negative Effects of Long Time Physical Activity Calorie Equivalent Labeling on Purchase Intention for Unhealthy Food.

(1) Background: Obesity has become a global epidemic that arouse much attention from governments, companies and scholar. Physical activity calorie equivalent (PACE) labels are introduced as a more effective nudge invention on less-calorie ordering. However, the effects of PACE labels are controversial in previous literature, thus, the research objective is to explore the effects of different PACE labels and furtherly to explore the underlying psychological mechanism; (2) Methods: Across four scenario-based experiments, involving potato chips, chocolate and cookies, this study manipulated the three calorie-information labeling (standard calorie label, long time PACE and short time PACE labels). Meanwhile, the mediating mechanism of the effects involving anticipatory guilt and the moderation effects between consumers’ future self-continuity and PACE labels are also measured; (3) Results: Results show that compared with the short time PACE and calorie labels, the longtime PACE labels have more negative influence on consumers’ purchase intention for unhealthy food. What’s more, the anticipatory guilt has negative effect of PACE labels as consumers are often prone to feeling guilty in the process of unhealthy food consumption. In addition, individuals with high future self-continuity have higher self-control and take more consideration of future outcomes, they are reluctant to choose unhealthy food than others; (4) Conclusions: Unhealthy food with a long time PACE label has more negative effect on consumers’ purchase intention rather than a short time PACE label. At the same time, companies that produce healthy foods should actively participate in the movement to label calories through the PACE labels.

Does the Food Safety Ranking System Act as a Nudge?

Public health safety is of concern to authorities across the globe, and inspector's food hygiene ranking system has been introduced in many countries. Mandatory disclosure of hygiene ranking information was introduced to empower consumers to make informed decisions regarding foodborne risks. Evaluating available research on public perception and attitude towards such rankings, it seems that the food safety rankings may prompt hygiene compliance by the food business operators and may act as a nudge for consumers to avoid outlets, though with certain caveats. Significant assessment of the scheme remains to be carried out for the ranking system to be an effective nudge for sustainable consumer protection. The public health authorities and organisations need to consider several real-world cognitive and behavioural constraints.

Paint It Red - A Multimethod Study of the Nudging Effect of Coloured Cycle Lanes.

Many countries colour their cycle lanes, but there is still a lack of research into the impact of this policy. Rather than constraining or regulating movement, coloured asphalt conveys information, and can serve as a good example of a “nudge”. In transport, there are few good examples of effective nudges for improved safety or sustainability. We used a multi-method approach to study the behaviour and experiences of cyclists before and after cycle lanes were coloured using red asphalt. Video data were collected and analysed to measure the extent to which motorists stopped in the cycle lane; motorist distance from the cycle lane on passing; and bicycle placement in the cycle lane. Cyclists (n = 1583) were asked how they experienced the cycle lane in field surveys. GPS data from cyclists (n = 2448) was used to measure whether colouring the cycle lanes resulted in a change of cyclists’ route choice. Video data showed no significant decrease in the share of passing motorists who stopped in the cycle lane. However, there was a significant decrease in the share of motorists stopping in the cycle lane rather than in the car lane or on the pavement. After recoating, motorists also kept a greater distance from the cycle lane; a greater share of cyclists chose to cycle in the cycle lane and a lower share cycled on the pavement. Analysis of survey data showed that visibility, perceived safety and ease of visualisation improved more in the recoated streets than in control streets. Analysis of the GPS data revealed a significant increase in cycling in the first streets to get red asphalt, with mixed results for the later streets. We discuss possible mechanisms behind the effects observed, and whether coloured cycle lanes can be considered as a form of nudging.

The impact of public health messaging and personal experience on the acceptance of mask wearing during the COVID-19 pandemic

Face coverings have been shown to slow the spread of COVID-19, yet their use is not universal and remains controversial in the United States. Designing effective nudges for widespread adoption is important when federal mandates are politically or legally infeasible. We report the results from a survey experiment in which subjects were exposed to one of three video messages from President Trump, and then indicated their preference for wearing a mask. In the first video, the President simply recited the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines. In the second, the President additionally emphasized that wearing a mask is optional. In the third video, the President added that he will not personally wear a mask. We find that exposure to presidential messages can increase the stated likelihood of wearing a mask—particularly among the President’s supporters. We also explore experiential effects of COVID-19, and find that people (especially supporters of the President) are more likely to support wearing a mask if they know someone who has tested positive for COVID-19. These results offer guidance to policy makers and practitioners interested in understanding the factors that influence viral risk mitigation strategies.

Nudging users towards better security decisions in password creation using whitebox-based multidimensional visualisations

ABSTRACT Nudging users to keep them secure online has become a growing research field in cybersecurity. While existing approaches are mainly blackbox based, showing aggregated visualisations as one-size-fits-all nudges, personalisation turned out promising to enhance the efficacy of nudges within the high variance of users and contexts. This article presents a disaggregated whitebox-based visualisation of critical information as a novel nudge. By segmenting users according to their decision-making and information processing styles, we investigate if the novel nudge is more effective for specific users than a common black-box nudge. Based on existing literature about critical factors in password security, we designed a dynamic radar chart and parallel coordinates as disaggregated visualisations. We evaluated the short-term effectiveness and users' perception of the nudges in a think-aloud prestudy and a representative online evaluation (N=1.012). Our findings suggest that dynamic radar charts present a moderately effective nudge towards stronger passwords regarding short-term efficacy and are appreciated particularly by players of role-playing games.

Altering preferences for suicide crisis resources using the decoy nudge: Evidence of context-dependent effects in suicide prevention decision making.

Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the United States. There are several important decisions that could confer later risk to a suicide attempt (e.g., how to store lethal means). Therefore, understanding how people make decisions that are relevant for suicide risk is an important area of study for suicidology. Human behavior diverges from perfectly rational economic decision making according to observable patterns based on predictable cognitive processes. Nudges attempt to diminish, leverage, or circumvent these deviations to increase the probability of a desired choice being selected or behavior being performed. One deviation from rationality is that human choice is context dependent. This deviation can be observed by introducing an objectively inferior alternative option (a decoy) into a choice array that alters an individual's preference. Using decoys could be one way to nudge people toward best practices in suicide prevention work. This study examined if decoys could reliably alter participant preferences for suicide prevention resources using a hypothetical scenario in three separate online samples (i.e., general population, participants with recent suicidal thoughts, gun owners). Our results found that introducing a slightly (but objectively) worse version of an existing suicide prevention resource increased the preference toward the slightly better option. These findings indicate that using decoys could be an effective nudge for influencing people's preference toward best practices. Most important, these findings highlight the importance of context effects on choice preference in suicide research and prevention efforts, as well as suggest irrational decision-making processes in suicide-relevant decision making. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Encouraging Energy Efficiency: Product Labels Activate Temporal Tradeoffs

The current research presents the 10-year energy label as an effective nudge to increase energy efficient choices by retail consumers. Its efficacy is demonstrated in both lab and field studies (Studies 1a and 1b) and compared to other energy labels (Studies 4 and 5). The current work proposes that it is effective partly because many consumers have a latent dollar cost-reduction goal. Normally, when consumers purchase energy using products, they do not think about long-term costs. However, the 10-year energy label activates this latent goal in the presence of an appropriate behavioral path to achieving the goal, increasing the proportion of energy efficient choices (Studies 3 and 4). Thus, this nudge is somewhat selective, having its greatest impact on consumers who self-report actively pursuing long-term cost reduction goals (Study 5).

Nudge me right: Personalizing online security nudges to people's decision-making styles

Nudges are simple and effective interventions that alter the architecture in which people make choices in order to help them make decisions that could benefit themselves or society. For many years, researchers and practitioners have used online nudges to encourage users to choose stronger and safer passwords. However, the effects of such nudges have been limited to local maxima, because they are designed with the “average” person in mind, instead of being customized to different individuals. We present a novel approach that analyzes individual differences in traits of decision-making style and, based on this analysis, selects which, from an array of online password nudges, would be the most effective nudge each user should receive. In two large-scale online studies, we show that such personalized nudges can lead to considerably better outcomes, increasing nudges’ effectiveness up to four times compared to administering “one-size-fits-all” nudges. We regard these novel findings a proof-of-concept that should steer more researchers, practitioners and policy-makers to develop and apply more efforts that could guarantee that each user is nudged in a way most right for them.