Behavioral nudges reduce failure to appear for court

Fishbane, Alissa; Ouss, Aurélie; Shah, Anuj

doi:10.1126/science.abb6591

Cited by 88 publications

(68 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…In economics, monthly reminders from banks increased clients' adherence to a saving commitment plan compared to clients who did not receive reminders (Karlan et al, 2016). Similarly, sending text message reminders before a trial effectively reduced the rate of failure to appear in court by 21%, regardless of the message content (Fishbane et al, 2020).…”

Section: Memorymentioning

confidence: 99%

A meta-analytic cognitive framework of nudge and sludge

Luo¹,

Soman²,

Zhao³

2021

Preprint

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Public and private institutions worldwide have gained considerable traction in developing interventions to alter people’s behaviors in predictable ways without limiting the freedom of choice or significantly changing the incentive structure (Thaler & Sunstein, 2008). A nudge is defined as an intervention to facilitate actions by minimizing friction and removing impediments, while a sludge is defined as an intervention that inhibits actions by increasing friction. While the terms nudge and sludge have garnered significant attention in behavioral economics, psychology, and public policy, the underlying cognitive mechanisms behind these interventions and their impact on behavior change remain largely unknown. We develop a novel cognitive framework by classifying these interventions along six cognitive processes: attention, perception, memory, effort, intrinsic motivation, and extrinsic motivation. In addition, we conduct a meta-analysis of field experiments (i.e., randomized controlled trials) (n=179 papers, k=222 observations, N=4,440,011 participants) from 2008 to 2020 to examine the effect size of these interventions targeting each cognitive process. Our findings demonstrate that effort-reducing interventions (e.g., convenience) are more effective than intrinsic motivation interventions (e.g., commitment-making) to change behaviors. Interventions that reduce or increase friction had similar effect sizes, although there were considerably fewer sludge studies (k=44) conducted to date than nudge ones (k=178). This new meta-analytic framework provides cognitive principles for organizing nudge and sludge with corresponding behavioral impacts. The insights gained from this framework help inform the design and development of future interventions based on cognitive insights.

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Section: Memorymentioning

confidence: 99%

A meta-analytic cognitive framework of nudge and sludge

Luo¹,

Soman²,

Zhao³

2021

Preprint

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“…This conflicts with other scholars who have made theoretical claims that low-SES individuals are less nudgeable (Roberts 2018). Other work has provided mixed evidence about whether low-or high-income individuals are more impacted by different nudges such as framing (Fishbane, Ouss, and Shah 2020;Hershfield, Shu, and Benartzi 2020;Shah, Shafir, and Mullainathan 2012). Clearly, more research is needed to test these opposing claims across a wide variety of nudges and contexts.…”

Section: Socioeconomic Statusmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do Nudges Reduce Disparities? Choice Architecture Compensates for Low Consumer Knowledge

Mrkva¹,

Posner²,

Reeck³

et al. 2021

Journal of Marketing

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Choice architecture tools, commonly known as nudges, powerfully impact decisions and can improve welfare. Yet it is unclear who is most impacted by nudges. If nudge effects are moderated by socioeconomic status (SES), these differential effects could increase or decrease disparities across consumers. Using field data and several pre-registered studies, we demonstrate that consumers with lower SES, domain knowledge, and numerical ability are impacted more by a wide variety of nudges. As a result, “good nudges” designed to increase selection of superior options reduced choice disparities, improving choices more among consumers with lower SES, financial literacy, and numeracy than among those with higher levels of these variables. Compared to “good nudges”, “bad nudges” designed to facilitate selection of inferior options exacerbated choice disparities. These results generalized across real retirement decisions, different nudges, and different decision domains. Across studies, we tested different explanations of why SES, domain knowledge, and numeracy moderate nudges. Our results suggest that nudges are a useful tool for those who wish to reduce disparities. We discuss implications for marketing firms and segmentation.

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“…Starting from the notion that attention is a cognitive resource, psychologists have recently attempted to redirect the “attentional spotlight” ( 67 ) as a means to ameliorate social ills, including interventions meant to bring people to pay more attention to what they post on social media ( 68 ) and when they are supposed to appear in court ( 69 ). We complement this individualistic perspective with one that places attention in a social context: Who is paying attention to whom?…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Racial attention deficit

2021

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Despite efforts toward equity in organizations and institutions, minority members report that they are often ignored, their contributions undervalued. Against this backdrop, we conduct a large-sample, multiyear experimental study to investigate patterns of attention. The findings provide causal evidence of a racial attention deficit: Even when in their best interest, White Americans pay less attention to Black peers. In a baseline study, we assign an incentivized puzzle to participants and examine their willingness to follow the example of their White and Black peers. White participants presume that Black peers are less competent-and fail to learn from their choices. We then test two interventions: Providing information about past accomplishments reduces the disparity in evaluations of Black peers, but the racial attention deficit persists. When Whites can witness the accomplishments of Black peers, rather than being told about them, the racial attention deficit subsides. We suggest that such a deficit can explain racial gaps documented in science, education, health, and law.

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Behavioral nudges reduce failure to appear for court

Cited by 88 publications

References 28 publications

A meta-analytic cognitive framework of nudge and sludge

A meta-analytic cognitive framework of nudge and sludge

Do Nudges Reduce Disparities? Choice Architecture Compensates for Low Consumer Knowledge

Racial attention deficit

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