Nudging as a Threat to Privacy

Kapsner, Andreas; Sandfuchs, Barbara

doi:10.1007/s13164-015-0261-4

Cited by 16 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…On one hand, behavioural economics and the use of scientific methods to understand, for instance, consumer behaviour have led to stronger consumer protection in the European Union (EU) and may help overcome some biases in people's decision-making. On the other hand, the use of, in particular, nudges by governments to steer citizens' behaviour towards social goals has met criticisms ranging from the very derivation of its normative justification (Whitman & Rizzo, 2015) to concerns over legal implications and privacy (see Kapsner & Sandfuchs, 2015, for the latter point of critique).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The challenges of behavioural insights for effective policy design

Kuehnhanss

2018

Policy and Society

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Behavioural insights are becoming increasingly popular with policy practitioners. Findings and methods originally provided by cognitive psychology and later behavioural economics have found use in the formulation of public policies. Their most popularised application has emerged under the auspices of libertarian paternalism in the form of 'nudging'. Its proponents claim to provide a new instrument to facilitate the formulation of effective and evidence-based policy, taking people's actual behaviour into account from the outset, while preserving their liberty to choose. This article reviews the origins of libertarian paternalism and the behavioural insights it builds on and takes a critical look at the foundations nudging relies on as a policy tool. It also discusses the ongoing efforts to build policy capacity to integrate behavioural insights and experimental methods in the creation of public policy. Behavioural insights offer a powerful tool to reshape and design new evidence-based policy. However, designers ought to be aware of the underlying assumptions on individual behaviour, the broadness of the mandate the nudging approach claims and the challenges they pose for design effectiveness.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The challenges of behavioural insights for effective policy design

Kuehnhanss

2018

Policy and Society

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“…69-80). Second, it will require a large-scale invasion of privacy in order to collect the necessary information about our conceptions of the good(Kapsner and Sandfuchs 2015). Overcoming these difficulties will be an onerous task.…”

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confidence: 99%

The Choice Architect’s Trilemma

Mills

2017

Res Publica

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Critics have long dismissed paternalistic choice architecture as conceptually muddled at best and oxymoronic at worst. In this article, I argue that this criticism remains true despite recent replies to the contrary. Further, I suggest that a similar conceptual criticism also applies to non-paternalistic choice architecture. This is due to a three-way tension between the effectiveness, avoidability, and distinctiveness of each nudge. To illustrate this tension, I provide a novel explanation of the mechanics of nudging and a taxonomy of these interventions. I then argue that choice architects who defend the distinctiveness of nudging according to how it guides our behaviour via our unreflective intuitive reasoning encounter a trilemma because the distinctiveness of nudging hinges on interventions being both avoidable and effective. Choice architects cannot achieve this aim without harnessing both our automatic and reflective systems of thought in tandem. However, this diminishes the distinctive character of nudging by bringing it closer to other traditional policy interventions. This establishes the choice architect's trilemma: a nudge is likely to be either ineffective, effective via some morally unacceptable means, or effective in a manner that is conceptually indistinct from other evidence-based policy interventions.

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“…Critics worry that personalized nudges demand the collection of citizen information on a gigantic scale, leading to the violation of privacy. Kapsner and Sandfuchs argue that the need for information about preferences is “the source of one of the greatest temptations for libertarian paternalists when it comes to collecting information about citizens and invading their private spheres.” (Kapsner and Sandfuchs, 2015: 458). In addition, the large-scale collection of citizen data is criticized on its potential for misuse.…”

Section: Ethical Issue: Welfarementioning

confidence: 99%

Nudge in perspective: A systematic literature review on the ethical issues with nudging

Kuyer

Gordijn

2023

Rationality and Society

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In this article, we systematically review the literature on the ethics of nudging. Since the publication of the book Nudge by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein in 2008, a rich literature has been developed on the question whether it is ethical to nudge people. This is an important area for research as nudges are commonly used by governments and private corporations to alter the behaviour of citizens and consumers. In order to gain a complete overview of this literature, we conduct a systematic search of academic sources. We investigate which ethical issues with nudging are discussed. We find four major ethical issues, namely worries regarding 1) autonomy, 2) welfare, 3) long-term adverse effects, and 4) democracy and deliberation. We discuss each ethical issue by highlighting how it is defined, what the critique constitutes, what its sub-issues are, and which defences of nudging have been argued for. In this way, the systematic literature review provides a comprehensive overview of the literature on the ethics of nudging to date. The results of our systematic review contribute to a better understanding of the ethical issues with nudging, as well as of the current state of the literature on these topics.

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Nudging as a Threat to Privacy

Cited by 16 publications

References 13 publications

The challenges of behavioural insights for effective policy design

The challenges of behavioural insights for effective policy design

The Choice Architect’s Trilemma

Nudge in perspective: A systematic literature review on the ethical issues with nudging

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