Nudging with care: The risks and benefits of social information

Arbeitspapier

Norms and nudges are both popular types of interventions. Recent years have seen the rise of "norm-nudges" - nudges whose mechanism of action relies on social norms, eliciting or changing social expectations. Norm-nudges can be powerful interventions, but they can easily fail to be effective and can even backfire unless they are designed with care. We highlight important considerations when designing norm-nudges and discuss a general model of social behavior based on expectations and conditional preferences. We present the results of several experiments where norm-nudging can backfire, and ways to avoid these negative outcomes.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: CeDEx Discussion Paper Series ; No. 2019-02

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Economic Methodology ; Microeconomic Behavior: Underlying Principles
• Subject: Norm-Nudges ; Nudge ; Social Information ; Social Norms

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Bicchieri, Cristina ; Dimant, Eugen
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): The University of Nottingham, Centre for Decision Research and Experimental Economics (CeDEx)
• (where): Nottingham
• (when): 2019

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/200434
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:45 AM CET