Nudging and Autonomy: Analyzing and Alleviating the Worries

Engelen, Bart; Nys, Thomas

doi:10.1007/s13164-019-00450-z

Cited by 31 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…54–56). If successful, so the argument goes, nudging can strengthen rather than undermine volitional autonomy (Engelen & Nys, ). (A worry is of course that nudgers might struggle to reliably identify people's ends, something we take up below in Section 4.3.…”

Section: Arguments Against Nudgingmentioning

confidence: 99%

The ethics of nudging: An overview

2020

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So‐called nudge policies utilize insights from behavioral science to achieve policy outcomes. Nudge policies try to improve people's decisions by changing the ways options are presented to them, rather than changing the options themselves or incentivizing or coercing people. Nudging has been met with great enthusiasm but also fierce criticism. This paper provides an overview of the debate on the ethics of nudging to date. After outlining arguments in favor of nudging, we first discuss different objections that all revolve around the worry that nudging vitiates personal autonomy. We split up this worry into different dimensions of autonomy, such as freedom of choice, volitional autonomy, rational agency, and freedom as nondomination. We next discuss worries that nudging is manipulative, violates human dignity, and prevents more important structural reform. Throughout, we will present responses that proponents of nudging can muster. On the whole, we conclude that the objections fail to establish that the nudge program as a whole should be rejected. At the same time, they give us important guidance when moving towards an ethical assessment of nudges on a case‐by‐case basis. Towards the end, we provide some possible ways forward in debates around the ethics of nudging.

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Section: Arguments Against Nudgingmentioning

confidence: 99%

The ethics of nudging: An overview

2020

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“…Autonomy is also valued by users, who generally like the idea of having control over their news recommendations (Monzer et al, 2020;Harambam et al, 2019). However, autonomy is difficult to define (Engelen and Nys, 2020) and facilitating it may at times limit consumption diversity. Several studies have linked customisation tools to selective exposure and related outcomes such as polarisation or decreased exposure to counter attitudinal headlines (Beam, 2014;Dylko et al, 2017).…”

Section: Trade-offs In the Design Of Diversity Nudgesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this context, we believe it helpful to think of autonomy "as the ability to set your own ends" (Engelen and Nys, 2020, p. 137). Given that we frequently fail to meet those ends for various reasons, nudges can be thought of as a useful aid that does not necessarily undermine autonomy (Engelen and Nys, 2020). Nonetheless, if nudges are to be ethical and trustworthy, their underlying logic and motivations should be made transparent to the user (Diakopoulos and Koliska, 2017).…”

Section: Trade-offs In the Design Of Diversity Nudgesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nudging towards diversity: A theoretical framework for facilitating diverse news consumption through recommender design

Mattis¹,

Masur²,

Moeller³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Growing concern about the democratic impact of automatically curated news platforms urges us to reconsider how such platforms should be designed. We propose a theoretical framework for personalised diversity nudges that can stimulate diverse news consumption on the individual level. To examine potential benefits and limitations of existing diversity nudges, we conduct an interdisciplinary literature review that synthesizes theoretical work on news selection mechanisms with hands-on tools and implementations from the fields of computer science and recommender systems. Based thereupon, we propose five diversity nudges that researchers and practitioners can build on. We provide a theoretical motivation of why, when, and for whom such nudges could be effective, critically reflect on their potential backfire effects and the need for algorithmic transparency, and sketch out a research agenda for diversity-aware news recommender design. Thereby, we develop concrete, theoretically grounded avenues toward facilitating diverse news consumption on algorithmically curated platforms.

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“…In fact, some charity nudges can actually promote people’s autonomy (Engelen & Nys, 2020; Sunstein, 2015). They can enhance—instead of bypass or subvert—people’s more reflective decision-making capacities.…”

Section: Ethical Considerations Concerning Nudging Charitable Givingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Unfortunately, the same nudge can increase someone’s autonomy but reduce that of someone else (Engelen & Nys, 2020; Krishnamurthy, 2015). This leads us to the second and the third question: if nudges do infringe on autonomy, when is this justified?…”

Section: Ethical Considerations Concerning Nudging Charitable Givingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nudging Charitable Giving: What (If Anything) Is Wrong With It?

Ruehle

Engelen

Archer

2020

Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly

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Nudging techniques can help charities to increase donations. In this article, we first provide a systematic overview of prototypical nudges that promote charitable giving. Second, we argue that plenty of the ethical objections raised against nudges, such as the exploitation of power they involve and the arguably intrusive and deceptive nature, are not specific to nudging itself. Carefully designing nudges can help to avoid these worries. Third, given that most concerns boil down to the worry that nudges infringe on people’s autonomy, we analyze when this could nevertheless be justified. We differentiate between perfect duties, imperfect duties, and supererogatory acts and argue that nudges are (a) morally permissible (even when they violate autonomy) when it comes to perfect duties and can (b) provide the best available strategy when it comes to imperfect duties. That said, we also analyze the conditions under which nudging charitable giving is impermissible.

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Nudging and Autonomy: Analyzing and Alleviating the Worries

Cited by 31 publications

References 38 publications

The ethics of nudging: An overview

The ethics of nudging: An overview

Nudging towards diversity: A theoretical framework for facilitating diverse news consumption through recommender design

Nudging Charitable Giving: What (If Anything) Is Wrong With It?

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