Wachner Jonas, Adriaanse Marieke A, De Ridder Denise T D
Department of Social, Health & Organisational Psychology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands.
Front Psychol. 2020 Dec 11;11:607894. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.607894. eCollection 2020.
While nudges are increasingly utilized in public policy settings, their potential threat to autonomous choice is the topic of heated debate. Regardless of the actual effects of nudges on autonomy, the mere perception of nudges as autonomy threatening by the general public or policy makers could negatively influence nudge acceptability. The present online studies examined how people expect (different) nudges to affect their perception of autonomy.
In the first study ( = 455), participants were presented with a hypothetical choice that employed either a default nudge, direct persuasion, or no persuasion, to steer to the desired choice. The presented influence technique was explained before participants reported their expected autonomy, as well as their expected choice satisfaction. Study 2 ( = 601) involved a replication of Study 1 with an additional social norm nudge condition. In Study 3 ( = 750), the explanation of how choice had been influenced was omitted.
While participants expected the default nudge to violate autonomy (Study 1), they had no such expectations for social norm nudges (Study 2). Omitting the explanation that most people are unaware of nudges influencing their choice, reduced the negative impact of nudges on expected autonomy (Study 3).
Effects of nudges on expectations of autonomy differ by type of nudge. Negative expectations are primarily driven by the explanation that decision makers are often unaware of nudges.
尽管助推手段在公共政策环境中越来越多地被使用，但其对自主选择的潜在威胁却是激烈辩论的话题。无论助推手段对自主性的实际影响如何，公众或政策制定者仅仅将助推手段视为对自主性的威胁，就可能对助推手段的可接受性产生负面影响。本在线研究考察了人们期望（不同的）助推手段如何影响他们对自主性的认知。
在第一项研究（N = 455）中，向参与者呈现一个假设性选择，该选择采用默认助推、直接劝说或不进行劝说的方式，以引导至期望的选择。在参与者报告他们预期的自主性以及预期的选择满意度之前，先对所呈现的影响技术进行解释。研究2（N = 601）重复了研究1，并增加了社会规范助推条件。在研究3（N = 750）中，省略了对选择如何受到影响的解释。
虽然参与者预计默认助推会侵犯自主性（研究1），但他们对社会规范助推却没有这样的预期（研究2）。省略大多数人没有意识到助推手段影响其选择这一解释，降低了助推手段对预期自主性的负面影响（研究3）。
助推手段对自主性预期的影响因助推类型而异。负面预期主要是由决策者往往没有意识到助推手段这一解释所驱动的。
