When in Doubt, Follow the Crowd? Responsiveness to Social Proof Nudges in the Absence of Clear Preferences
When in Doubt, Follow the Crowd? Responsiveness to Social Proof Nudges in the Absence of Clear Preferences
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DOI：
10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01385
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发表时间：
2020-06-18
影响因子：
3.8
通讯作者：
de Ridder, Denise T. D.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Venema, Tina A. G.;Kroese, Floor M.;de Ridder, Denise T. D.
轻推作为一种行为改变工具越来越受欢迎，该工具旨在通过改变选择选项的呈现方式来促进对合理选择选项的选择。尽管轻推的目的是在不干扰人们的先前偏好的情况下促进这些选择，但个人的先前偏好与轻推有效性之间的关系，以及推“促进”决策的概念几乎没有得到实证检验。两项研究检验了这一假设，即当人们没有明确的事先偏好时，社交证明推动特别有效，要么是因为人们冷漠(在颜色分类任务中；研究1，N=255)，要么是因为人们经历了选择冲突(做出关于肉类产品的购物决定；研究2，N=97)。这两项研究都使用了社会证据来引导参与者的选择。使用鼠标跟踪器范式测试了轻推的潜在促进效果，该范式隐含地评估了决策过程中经历的不确定性。结果表明，轻推在指导参与者的决策方面是有效的；促进效应(即减少对决策的不确定性)仅在冲突偏好下观察到，但在冷漠下没有观察到。更好地理解轻推何时以及如何影响个人的行为，可能有助于决定轻推是否是改变特定不良行为的适当政策工具。
Nudges have gained popularity as a behavioral change tool that aims to facilitate the selection of the sensible choice option by altering the way choice options are presented. Although nudges are designed to facilitate these choices without interfering with people's prior preferences, both the relation between individuals' prior preferences and nudge effectiveness, as well as the notion that nudges 'facilitate' decision-making have received little empirical scrutiny. Two studies examine the hypothesis that a social proof nudge is particularly effective when people have no clear prior preference, either because people are indifferent (in a color-categorization task; Study 1,N= 255) or because people experience a choice conflict (making shopping decisions about meat products; Study 2,N= 97). Both studies employed a social proof nudge to steer participants' choices. The potential facilitating effect of the nudge was tested using a mouse-tracker paradigm that implicitly assessed experienced uncertainty during decision-making. Results showed that the nudge was effective in steering participants' decisions; the facilitation effect (i.e., reduced uncertainty regarding the decision) was only observed for conflicting preferences, but not under indifference. A better understanding of when and how nudges can influence individuals' behavior may help in deciding whether nudges are an appropriate policy tool for changing particular undesirable behavior.