Why Policymakers Should Be Transparent About the Behavioural Interventions They Use: A Systematic, Policy-Oriented Review

Bruns, Hendrik; Paunov, Yavor

doi:10.2139/ssrn.3948978

Cited by 9 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 2 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Problem 1: Operationalizations of transparency lack correspondence Transparency about a nudge can mean several things, 2 and perhaps unsurprisingly, transparency-enhancing messages in the literature contain a wide range of content. One mapping of the research literature suggests no less than nine separate aspects of transparency being disclosed (Bruns and Paunov, 2021). At the conceptual level, different reasons for promoting transparency (e.g., ethical or political) may favor transparency about different details.…”

Section: Methodological Limitations and How They May Be Addressedmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transparency and Nudging: An Overview and Methodological Critique of Empirical Investigations

Michaelsen¹

2023

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Transparency is intimately linked to debates about the ethics, political legitimacy, and effectiveness of nudging. This paper provides an overview of the empirical literature investigating how changes in the transparency of a nudge affects people’s choices and evaluations of the nudge. A number of conceptual and methodological issues which limit what conclusions can be drawn from the literature are identified, and suggestions for how they may be addressed in future research are provided. I conclude that the present literature provides generally consistent evidence supporting that the effectiveness of a nudge does not decrease when choosers are given good opportunity to detect and understand the influence it might have on their choices. However, based on the present evidence base, the extent to which this conclusion generalizes to real-world policymaking is called into question.

show abstract

Section: Methodological Limitations and How They May Be Addressedmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transparency and Nudging: An Overview and Methodological Critique of Empirical Investigations

Michaelsen¹

2023

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Transparency about a nudge can mean several things, 2 and perhaps unsurprisingly, transparency-enhancing messages in the literature contain a wide range of content. One mapping of the research literature suggests no less than nine separate aspects of transparency being disclosed (Bruns and Paunov, 2021). At the conceptual level, different reasons for promoting transparency (e.g., ethical or political) may favor transparency about different details.…”

Section: Problem 1: Operationalizations Of Transparency Lack Correspo...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Transparency and nudging: an overview and methodological critique of empirical investigations

Michaelsen

2024

Behav. Public Policy

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Transparency is intimately linked to debates about the ethics, political legitimacy and effectiveness of nudging. This paper provides an overview of empirical studies investigating how changes in the transparency of a nudge affect people's choices and evaluations of the nudge. I conclude that the present literature provides generally consistent evidence supporting that the effectiveness of a nudge does not decrease when choosers are given good opportunity to detect and understand the influence it might have on their choices. However, several conceptual and methodological issues are identified, significantly limiting the scope of the conclusions that can be drawn. The limitations are discussed and organized into six themes, with recommendations provided for how future research may address them.

show abstract

“…Therefore, in order to increase the legitimacy of such tools when used by public authorities, one needs to examine the nudge's effectiveness when it is made transparent. Bruns and Paunov (2021) have identified different types of transparency which have been implemented in past studies. The most prominent type of transparency relies on informing participants how the nudge affects or is expected to affect them.…”

Section: Theoretical Framework and Predictionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can vaccination intentions against COVID-19 be nudged?

Kantorowicz‐Reznichenko

Kantorowicz

Wells

2022

Behav. Public Policy

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Once vaccines against COVID-19 became available in many countries, a new challenge has emerged – how to increase the number of people who vaccinate? Different policies are being considered and implemented, including behaviourally informed interventions (i.e., nudges). In this study, we have experimentally examined two types of nudges on representative samples of two countries – descriptive social norms (Israel) and saliency of either the death experience from COVID-19 or its symptoms (UK). To increase the legitimacy of nudges, we have also examined the effectiveness of transparent nudges, where the goal of the nudge and the reasons of its implementation (expected effectiveness) were disclosed. We did not find evidence that informing people that the vast majority of their country-people intend to vaccinate enhanced vaccination intentions in Israel. We also did not find evidence that making the death experience from COVID-19, or its hard symptoms, salient enhanced vaccination intentions in the UK. Finally, transparent nudges as well did not change the results. We further provide evidence for the reasons why people choose not to vaccinate, and whether different factors such as gender, belief in conspiracy theories, political ideology, and risk perception, play a role in people's intentions to vaccinate or susceptibility to nudges.

show abstract

Why Policymakers Should Be Transparent About the Behavioural Interventions They Use: A Systematic, Policy-Oriented Review

Cited by 9 publications

References 2 publications

Transparency and Nudging: An Overview and Methodological Critique of Empirical Investigations

Transparency and Nudging: An Overview and Methodological Critique of Empirical Investigations

Transparency and nudging: an overview and methodological critique of empirical investigations

Can vaccination intentions against COVID-19 be nudged?

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About