George Loewenstein, Cindy Bryce, David Hagmann, and Sachin Rajpal, “Warning: You are About to Be Nudged,” March 28, 2014
• Does informing people about the use of a behavioral nudge – here, default choices – alter their behavior relative to using the nudge without informing them?
• The experiment involves a hypothetical directive concerning end-of-life care. Subjects could choose the “Prolong” option, in which medical authorities do whatever is necessary to keep someone alive, despite the potential for more suffering, or subjects could choose the “Comfort” option, in which doctors would try to be make the patients comfortable, at some cost in terms of longevity. Subjects also could choose to deputize their relatives and doctors to make the choice for them at the appropriate time.
• Each subject was provided with a default option, either “Prolong” or “Comfort,” though it was easy to override the default. Most people preferred the “Comfort” alternative, and the default setting did not influence these preferences in the aggregate. Telling people in advance about the extraordinary staying power of defaults had no effect relative to telling them after their initial choice.
• Along with the general Prolong/Comfort option, there were questions concerning five specific medical interventions. Choices on whether to pursue these options showed a significant influence from the default settings, even when subjects were pre-informed that they were being “defaulted.” Some of the influence remained for the respondents who were post-informed that they had been defaulted, and were asked to choose again without a specified default.
• Pre-informing people of the default had little impact on diminishing the power of the default nudge; likewise, post-informing them of the default, and giving them the opportunity to choose again, did not diminish the power of the default. Nonetheless, these findings take place in an experimental context in which default pressures themselves are not large.
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