Background
Approval of nudging
The origins of nudges
The effectiveness of nudging
Concerns over the manipulative aspects of nudging
The case of health behaviors
Research question
Methods
Semi-structured interviews
Participants and procedure
Analysis
Thematic analysis
Theme | Code | Definition & example |
---|---|---|
Knowledge | Familiarity | Acquaintance with the concept of nudging. |
E.g., [“The topic that I would like to talk about is nudging. Have you ever heard of nudging?”] “I have never heard of it.” | ||
Observed Nudges | Examples of nudges. | |
E.g., “There are these signs, neon signs, an electronic sign that shows you a sad face when you’re going above the speed limit or a nice smiley if you’re ok.” | ||
Novel ideas | Suggestions for domains for new nudges. | |
E.g., “I think walking more around London is a good way. I know they encouraged more cycling but I think people should walk more.” | ||
Individual differences | Objective | Differences in peoples’ motives. |
E.g., “I think of people are willing to do the right thing and willing to be healthy, I think…..” | ||
Indifference | Lack of interest in target behavior. | |
E.g., “There are a lot of people who care about it but you get certain people who don’t. They just do it because they just can’t be bothered to put it into the other bags.” | ||
Self-target | Approval | Level of agreement with being nudged for the self. |
E.g., [“Would you appreciate it if you were nudged into healthy eating?”] | ||
“Yes. I would appreciate it. I think everyone wants to do it and it is great to be encouraged to do it.” | ||
Effectiveness | Judgment of the extent that nudging would be successful when targeted at the interviewee. | |
E.g., “Personally I don’t think I need any nudges but I guess it helps, yes. I am generally quite healthy anyway.” | ||
General - target | General Approval | Level of agreement with nudging targeted at anyone |
E.g., “I think the food is an absolutely brilliant idea, absolutely brilliant because we have got so much obesity and it is too easy for them to go and grab a big plate, fill it up and then just go back again but if you have got something smaller then you can only eat what is on the plate if you like and I think that is a good thing. I think that would help a lot of people. The stairs is good too because it makes it fun because sometimes exercise can be so boring.” | ||
General Effectiveness | Judgment of the extent that nudging would be successful when targeted at anyone. | |
E.g., “No, what I am saying is, it has its benefits so people who alright yeah, who go to the supermarket and take the back and read it looking at the calories because they are health-conscious but for those that are not they can see a healthy food and just pass it back. So being there means nothing to somebody who has no idea.” | ||
Specific target groups | Potential population segments targeted by nudges. | |
E.g., “So yeah, I think it would be important and from a children’s perspective as well because in supermarkets sweets are deliberately put by the checkout in order for a child to spot them and also last minute shopping so it is all psychological.” | ||
Origin | Actors | Individuals or groups implementing or designing nudges. |
E.g., [“Would it matter for you who is deciding on what is a good behaviour?”] “Probably the dieticians or the doctors.” | ||
Expertise | Required level of knowledge in the targeted behavior. | |
E.g., “Someone who, maybe a nutritionist or something like that because they obviously knows about health things or someone who has done psychology as well and knows why people are going to pick things. Perhaps a psychologist and a nutritionist.” | ||
Intention | Motives of the agents involved in designing nudges. | |
E.g., [“Does it matter who implements these health nudges or who decides on what the good behaviour is?”] “It doesn't matter as long as the goal is clear that it is to help people lead healthier lives.” | ||
Trust | Degree of confidence in agents’ motives related to the design of nudges. | |
E.g., “I would trust somebody that had done their research and it is maybe Government funded or maybe a Government initiative or a health initiative so something that has got a sort of, a reputable backing.” | ||
Behavior | Habit | People’s routine behaviors. |
E.g., “In retrospect, the nudges then hopefully become part and parcel of your life and your everyday working life or home life.” | ||
Individual Capacity | People’s extend of influence on their own behavior. | |
E.g., “Yes actually yes, because we try to push ourselves but sometimes something else influences it, you know what yeah I am going to do it.” | ||
Facilitation | Supportive effects of nudges on behavior. | |
E.g., “As long as people have opinions but make it easier for them to choose the more healthier option.” | ||
Social environment | The relationship between people’s behavior and their social surrounding. | |
E.g., “It might change you one day to say “Come on, everybody is so I might as well” and it is good for the future.” | ||
Freedom of choice | Coercion | Oppressive influences of nudges on behavior. |
E.g., “What you do is you manipulate their decision making whereby it is them noticing that you are doing it or them not noticing that you are doing it, it doesn’t matter. You just manipulate them to do what you want them to do.” | ||
Nudging-suitable domains | Appropriateness of behavioral domains for nudging. | |
E.g., “I don’t know how you can nudge in those areas because there is so much out there, there’s so much and it is personal choice isn’t it? It is personal belief in terms of religion.” | ||
Choice-set limitation | Restricting the availability of choices and possible behaviors. | |
E.g., “I think alternative options are always good like if you had an alternative option but I don’t think they should take anything that is currently there and then say you can’t have that any more.” | ||
Cognition | Reactance | Counter-reaction to the promoted behavior. |
E.g., “There are people who are set in their ways and bringing in anything that is going to be far from their norm, even if it is a simple task, is not going to go down well with them and there are those people who just don’t like change. Even if you bring it, you might want to resist.” | ||
Awareness | (No) Realization of the influence of nudges. | |
E.g., “I think we are nudged every day in life and we don’t realise we are being nudged.” | ||
Need for information | Required level of information on being nudged and/or the targeted behaviors. | |
E.g., “Because they are trying to encourage healthy eating and it is educating people because information is power. If you know the good and the bad things, I hope there are going to be loads of advertisements about these things because people need to be educated and they need to be aware of things before they can be applied in practice.” |
Results
Consumers’ approval of nudging
“In a poking kind of sense or some applications to send someone a nudge”(Male, 27, high SES, overweight)
“Advertising in a sense is a nudge about a product”(Male, 29, middle SES, normal weight)
“No. I don’t think there is a disadvantage because at the end of the day it is to create a safer and a better environment. If they don’t agree with it then I guess they just don’t have to do it if they don’t want to but at the end of the day it is a benefit for everyone”(Female, 28, middle SES, normal weight)
“I am all for it. Anything to do with health behaviour and improving people’s health in general, I am always supporting that. I think it is a very clever idea because no one likes change because if you tell people “Do this” then they will do that. There won’t be a good reaction. But I think nudging is in some ways subconsciously trying to get people to do or to make a better choice, so yeah I support it”(Male, 27, high SES, overweight)
“Yes. I would be more in favour. I think it’s needless for me. In the country everyone is getting fatter so the teenagers coming into these buffets, if they were having smaller plates and they had smaller plates at home they wouldn’t think “I will eat more”. It might help”(Male, 24, high SES, normal weight)
“Like I said before, anything that promotes good behaviour and living healthily is part of good behaviour, I think it’s good, it is a good idea”(Male, 48, low SES, overweight)“
“It depends on what kind of thing it was, I suppose and what kind of decision it was that they were trying to force you into. If it was an environmentally good thing then I wouldn’t mind if someone is making these nudges but if it was something to do with making me pay out for something that I don’t necessarily need and they are just trying to force it upon me then I would find that negative”(Male, 24, high SES, normal weight)
“So yeah, I think it would be important and from a children’s perspective as well because in supermarkets sweets are deliberately put by the checkout in order for a child to spot them and also last minute shopping so it is all psychological”(Female, 59, low SES, normal weight)
“With children maybe and maybe that is too pushy in that sense because it is not being explained. It is just being forced on them if you like. Yeah, maybe in children but not in adults, no. I think it is fine”(Female, 46, low SES, overweight)
The origin of nudges
“Someone who, maybe a nutritionist or something like that because they obviously know about health things or someone who has done psychology as well and knows why people are going to pick things. Perhaps a psychologist and a nutritionist” (Male, 29, middle SES, normal weight)
“…anything Government-related or anything that comes from the Government people instantly distrust. Because the Government is coming from a discredited stance a lot of times to start with. So based on that people are not going to take what they say. They said about the meat that people were eating and how it was the Government knew that was all this type of meat that we were being served and they said – Let them still eat it – and stuff like that”(Male, 56, high SES, overweight)
“I mean it is all about marketing in this particular case. And since here is always going to be somebody trying to, I guess the word is manipulate other people so it might as well to be somebody who has, thinks of ways to help them and somebody else that might think a bit more about the money and not so much about what is good for people”(Male, 34, middle SES, overweight)
Consumers’ the perceived effectiveness of nudging
“Personally I don’t think I need any nudges but I guess it helps yes. I am generally quite healthy anyway”(Male, 29, middle SES, normal weight)
“Someone that really doesn’t care, it is going to be quite hard to nudge them” (Female, 28, middle SES, normal weight)
Concerns about manipulative aspects of nudging
“There will be a problem if you are saying people shouldn’t eat junk food or if you take away the elevator”(Female, 30, high SES, overweight)
“But the disadvantage of it is if it is something negative and if the customer of the person finds out that things are actually strategically placed or done for that reason and they might be offended”(Female, 27, middle SES, overweight)
“but if it was something to do with making me pay out for something that I don’t necessarily need and they are just trying to force it upon me then I would find that negative”(Male, 24, high SES, normal weight)
“Although it was the right thing that I had got but I had been maneuvered there. Some people would rather take the wrong thing but it was their choice”(Male, 56, high SES, overweight)
“For example in schools now, I am of Christian and I have been brought up to understand that marriage is between a man and a woman. I am being told, I have come to know that there are silent nudges that try to force same-sex marriage or same-sex down the throats of people at churches […] no matter what orientation you choose but they are slowly taking away that freedom. How do I explain it, sometimes nudging feels like a propaganda by certain people in the Government to force”(Female, 30, high SES, overweight)