Understanding nudge interventions: Assessing the impact of fit between context and source of default recommendation in shaping decision-making and perceptions of default options

Presenter Information

Grayson Long
Jadvir Gill

Document Type

Poster

Campus where you would like to present

Ellensburg

Event Website

https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/source

Start Date

15-5-2019

End Date

15-5-2019

Abstract

Default options have a powerful impact on decision-making outcomes ranging from the vital (e.g., organ donation) to the banal (e.g., shipping options). While decision-makers may assume default choices represent recommendations, perceptions of the source of this recommendation is not well understood and may change as a function of task or context. For example, decision-makers may assume defaults represent experts’ opinions for complex or technical decisions, but the popular option for social decisions. In the current study (data collection ongoing), participants were presented with decisions described as being complex or social. The defaults included either matched (i.e., default options described as being selected by an expert in the complex situation or the most popular options in the social situation) or mismatched the decision context. An additional subset of participants was given no explanation as to how the defaults were chosen. We measured both the number of times the default option was selected and participants’ perceptions of what the default options represented. This design allowed us to examine both the impact of fit between the decision context and source of default, and how people spontaneously make inferences about what information the default conveys. We hypothesized that the effectiveness of a default option will increase as a function of fit between the context and the explanation of the source of the default. Further, we hypothesized that participants’ will be more likely to view the default as representing an expert’s opinion in the complex context, and the most popular option in the social context.

Winner, Outstanding Poster Presentation, College of the Sciences.

Faculty Mentor(s)

Tonya Buchanan

Department/Program

Psychology

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Understanding nudge interventions: Assessing the impact of fit between context and source of default recommendation in shaping decision-making and perceptions of default options

Ellensburg

Default options have a powerful impact on decision-making outcomes ranging from the vital (e.g., organ donation) to the banal (e.g., shipping options). While decision-makers may assume default choices represent recommendations, perceptions of the source of this recommendation is not well understood and may change as a function of task or context. For example, decision-makers may assume defaults represent experts’ opinions for complex or technical decisions, but the popular option for social decisions. In the current study (data collection ongoing), participants were presented with decisions described as being complex or social. The defaults included either matched (i.e., default options described as being selected by an expert in the complex situation or the most popular options in the social situation) or mismatched the decision context. An additional subset of participants was given no explanation as to how the defaults were chosen. We measured both the number of times the default option was selected and participants’ perceptions of what the default options represented. This design allowed us to examine both the impact of fit between the decision context and source of default, and how people spontaneously make inferences about what information the default conveys. We hypothesized that the effectiveness of a default option will increase as a function of fit between the context and the explanation of the source of the default. Further, we hypothesized that participants’ will be more likely to view the default as representing an expert’s opinion in the complex context, and the most popular option in the social context.

Winner, Outstanding Poster Presentation, College of the Sciences.

https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/source/2019/Posters/122