Nudge in the news: Ethics, effects, and support of nudges

Abstract

Governments use nudges to stimulate citizens to exercise, save money and eat healthily. However, nudging is controversial. How the media frames nudge impacts decisions on whether to use this policy instrument. We, therefore, analyzed 443 newspaper articles about nudging. Overall, the media was positive about nudges. Nudging was viewed as an effective and efficient way to change behavior and received considerable support across the political spectrum. The media also noted that nudges were easy to implement. The controversy about nudges concerns themes like paternalism, fear of manipulation, small effect sizes, and unintended consequences. Academic proponents of nudging were actively involved in media debates, while critical voices were less often heard. There were some reports criticizing how the government used nudges. However, these were exceptions; the media often highlighted the benefits of nudging. Concluding, we show how nudging by governments was discussed in a critical institution: the news media.

Between Carrots and Sticks, from Intentions to Actions: Behavioural Interventions for Housing Decisions

“…Additionally, there are concerns about the potential for nudges to reinforce or amplify existing inequalities (Mrkva et al, 2021) and the effectiveness of nudges in addressing larger policy issues, such as climate change or income inequality, which require more systemic changes (Berger et al, 2022). While behavioural interventions can be a useful tool for promoting positive behaviour, their potential for manipulation and reinforcement of inequalities and their effectiveness in addressing larger policy issues are still topics of ongoing debates (Bruns et al, 2018;Dowding & Oprea, 2023;Renaud & Zimmermann, 2018;Tummers, 2023). These concerns highlight the importance of employing an ethics toolkit and thoroughly considering potential implications before designing and implementing behavioural interventions.…”

“Wait Short Time” as a Simple and Resource-rational Boost: Theoretical and Empirical Approaches in the Contexts of Speed-accuracy Trade-off

“…Regarding a behavioral change intervention, nudge 3,4 is well-known and also aims to change people's behaviors by manipulating choice architecture 3,5,6 . However, nudge is sometimes criticized in terms of disregarding workers' autonomy and the temporal duration of the effects 7 . In contrast to the nudge approach, the boost approach focuses on fostering people's cognitive competence such as their ability to perform tasks by a simple intervention (e.g., in Bayesian probability judgments, simply manipulating the information presentation format presented, such as changing information from "30%" to "30 out of 100 people", enhanced judgment accuracy 8,9 ).…”

“One-second wait”: A simple and effective intervention to boost judgment accuracy

“…Nudge aims to change people's behaviors by manipulating choice architecture (e.g., 41,43,44). Although generally regarded as an effective intervention, nudge is sometimes criticized regarding ethical issues such as disregarding workers' autonomy and temporal duration of the effects (e.g., 45,46). Unlike nudge, boost focuses on fostering people's cognitive competences that they potentially have, such as their ability to consider tasks (e.g., competence for probability judgments in an example in the main text).…”