‘Good Nudge Lullaby’: Choice Architecture and Default Bias Reinforcement

Thomas de Haan*, Jona Linde

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

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Abstract

Because people disproportionally follow defaults, both libertarian paternalists and marketers try to present options they want to promote as the default. However, setting certain defaults and thereby influencing current decisions, may also affect choices in later, similar decisions. In this article, we explore experimentally whether the default bias can be reinforced by providing good defaults. We show that people who faced better defaults in the past are more likely to follow defaults than people who faced random defaults, hurting their later performance. This malleability of the default bias explains certain marketing practices and serves as an insight for libertarian paternalists.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1180-1206
Number of pages27
JournalThe Economic Journal
Volume128
Issue number610
Early online date22 Oct 2016
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - May 2018

Keywords

  • LIBERTARIAN PATERNALISM
  • MULTIPLE GAMES
  • EXPECTATIONS
  • INFORMATION
  • PSYCHOLOGY
  • EQUILIBRIA
  • DECISIONS
  • OXYMORON

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