Defaults are not a panacea
Distinguishing Between Default Effects on Choices and on Outcomes
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6416475 |
|---|---|
| Authors | David A Kalkstein (0000-0001-9731-9066, Stanford University, corresponding author), Fabiana De Oliveira Lima (0000-0002-6114-9242, The Ohio State University), Shannon T Brady (0000-0003-3975-3301, Wake Forest University), Christopher S Rozek (0000-0003-4389-8538, Washington University in St. Louis), E Johnson (0000-0001-7797-8347, Columbia University), Gary M Walton (0000-0002-6194-0472, Stanford University) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 9 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 410-425 |
| Publication date | 2022-08-03 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Behavioural Public Policy (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2398-063X • E-ISSN: 2398-0648 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/bpp.2022.24 |
| OpenAlex | W4289517773 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 20 |
Recently, defaults have become celebrated as a low-cost and easy-to-implement nudge for promoting positive outcomes, both at an individual and societal level. In the present research, we conducted a large-scale field experiment ( N = 32,508) in an educational context to test the effectiveness of a default intervention in promoting participation in a potentially beneficial achievement test. We found that a default manipulation increased the rate at which high school students registered to take the test but failed to produce a significant change in students’ actual rate of test-taking. These results join past literature documenting robust effects of default framings on initial choice but marked variability in the extent to which those choices ultimately translate to real-world outcomes. We suggest that this variability is attributable to differences in choice-to-outcome pathways – the extent to which the initial choice is causally determinative of the outcome
Actuarial science · Context (archaeology · Default · Determinative · Economics · Intervention (counseling · Microeconomics · Outcome (game theory · Panacea (medicine · Political science · Scale (ratio · Test (biology · Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics · Experimental Behavioral Economics Studies · Medicine · Psychology · School Choice and Performance · Finance
Partitioning Variation in Multilevel Models
Do Defaults Save Lives?
The effectiveness of nudging
Should Governments Invest More in Nudging?
Seed and Soil
The Power of Suggestion
Temporal construal.
Fitting Linear Mixed-Effects Models Using lme4
Crime, commitment, and the responsive bystander
When and why defaults influence decisions
Nudge
The role of psychological factors and institutional channels in predicting the attainment of postsecondary goals
Interpreting Effect Sizes of Education Interventions
Cognitive dissonance and psychotherapy
Large and persistent effects of green energy defaults in the household and business sectors
Dynamics of self-regulation
Green defaults can combat climate change
| Citations per year | 1.33 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2023 - 2026 (4) |
| Highly cited | No |