Behavioural interventions that directly influence decision-making are increasingly popular policy tools. Two prominent interventions used are nudges, which promote an optimal choice without restricting options, and boosts, which promote individual capabilities to make more informed choices. Direct comparison is a critical step toward understanding the populations and contexts where they may be most efficient, or potentially complementary toward improving their effectiveness. Two trials in the US and Serbia (N = 1423) tested a series of choices under uncertainty using both nudge and boost interventions. In a replication setting, hypothetical and consequential decisions are used. Findings indicate that disclosure nudges and boosts, unlike social nudges, promote more advantageous financial decisions. Furthermore, the effects of disclosure nudges and boosts generally differ depending on loss and gain framing-boosts promoted more advantageous decisions under gain frames while disclosure nudges did so under loss frames. Finally, boosts were typically more effective for those who initially made suboptimal choices and sociodemographic factors did not mediate the effectiveness of the interventions. These insights provide clarity to highly nuanced, complex patterns across population behaviours in the context of financial choice under uncertainty and considerable implications for the design of interventions for policies that impact population behaviours.

Excessive consumption is on the rise, as is apparent in growing financial debt and global greenhouse gas emissions. Voluntary simplicity, a lifestyle choice of reduced consumption and sustainable consumer behavior, provides a potential solution for excessive consumers. However, voluntary simplicity is unpopular, difficult to adopt, and under researched. The outlined research project will test a method of promoting voluntary simplicity via user-generated content, thus mimicking an existing social media trend (Minimalism) in an empirical research design. The project will test (a) whether the Minimalism trend could benefit consumers interested in reducing their consumption, and (b) whether self-transcendence (i.e., biospheric) and self-enhancement (i.e., egoistic and hedonic) values and goals have a similar impact in promoting voluntary simplicity. A one-week intervention program will test the efficacy of watching user-generated voluntary simplicity videos in reducing non-essential consumption. Each of the two intervention conditions will present participants with similar tutorial videos on consumption reduction (e.g., decluttering, donating), while priming the relevant values and goals (self-transcendence or self-enhancement). These interventions will be compared to a control condition, involving no user-generated content. Participants will undergo baseline and post-intervention evaluations of: voluntary simplicity attitudes and behaviors, buying and shopping behaviors, values and goals in reducing consumption, and life satisfaction. Experience sampling will monitor affective state during the intervention. We provide a detailed stepwise procedure, materials, and equipment necessary for executing this intervention. The outlined research design is expected to contribute to the limited literature on voluntary simplicity, online behavioral change interventions, and the use of social marketing principles in consumer interventions.

With rapid growth of self-driving vehicle technologies, policymakers and industry are actively engaging the public to understand attitudes toward smart mobility. As public officials explore implementing connected systems, they may find diverse reactions. We present an important insight using precise technology adoption curves for three age groups within a major initiative in the United Kingdom, going beyond theoretical expectations. Specifically, the adaptation of self-driving cars reflects the patterns of adaptation to previous technologies. Furthermore, older participants were more likely to be late adopters of the technology than younger participants. Implications from these insights offer the opportunity to enhance public engagement and optimize the implementation of such systems, thereby maximizing population benefits.