van Gestel Laurens C, Adriaanse Marieke A, de Ridder Denise T D
Department of Social, Health, and Organisational Psychology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands.
Front Psychol. 2020 Jun 10;11:1211. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01211. eCollection 2020.
Nudges are defined as small adjustments in the choice architecture that stimulate desirable behavior. Nudging techniques can be used as a promising policy tool, but research has hardly systematically taken into account the complexity of the situation in which nudges have been implemented. In the current studies, we investigated the effectiveness of a proximity nudge on food choice in a realistic situation with multiple options in the immediate surroundings of the target option. In two studies, we presented participants from a community sample with an assortment of either three or nine different types of chocolate. For half of the participants, the target chocolate was placed most proximally on a table. Across two studies, we demonstrated that the proximity nudge was effective in stimulating the choice for a specific piece of chocolate in a simple and more complex situation. Results were further qualified by Bayesian analyses, which revealed most support for the hypothesis that the proximity effect existed in both the conditions with three and nine options, regardless of the number of options in the choice set. Results imply that the proximity effect can remain robust in realistic situations that include multiple options in the immediate environment to choose from.
助推被定义为选择架构中的微小调整，以激发期望的行为。助推技术可作为一种有前景的政策工具，但研究几乎没有系统地考虑实施助推的情境的复杂性。在当前的研究中，我们调查了在目标选项紧邻区域有多个选项的现实情境中，位置接近助推对食物选择的有效性。在两项研究中，我们向来自社区样本的参与者展示了三种或九种不同类型巧克力的组合。对于一半的参与者，目标巧克力被放置在桌子上最靠近的位置。在两项研究中，我们证明了位置接近助推在简单和更复杂的情境中，都能有效地激发对特定巧克力的选择。贝叶斯分析进一步验证了结果，其显示最支持这样一种假设：无论选择集中选项的数量如何，在有三种和九种选项的条件下都存在位置接近效应。结果表明，在包括紧邻环境中有多个选项可供选择的现实情境中，位置接近效应可能依然稳健。
