IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nathum/v4y2020i11d10.1038_s41562-020-0889-7.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How behavioural sciences can promote truth, autonomy and democratic discourse online

Author

Listed:
  • Philipp Lorenz-Spreen

    (Max Planck Institute for Human Development)

  • Stephan Lewandowsky

    (University of Bristol
    University of Western Australia)

  • Cass R. Sunstein

    (Harvard Law School)

  • Ralph Hertwig

    (Max Planck Institute for Human Development)

Abstract

Public opinion is shaped in significant part by online content, spread via social media and curated algorithmically. The current online ecosystem has been designed predominantly to capture user attention rather than to promote deliberate cognition and autonomous choice; information overload, finely tuned personalization and distorted social cues, in turn, pave the way for manipulation and the spread of false information. How can transparency and autonomy be promoted instead, thus fostering the positive potential of the web? Effective web governance informed by behavioural research is critically needed to empower individuals online. We identify technologically available yet largely untapped cues that can be harnessed to indicate the epistemic quality of online content, the factors underlying algorithmic decisions and the degree of consensus in online debates. We then map out two classes of behavioural interventions—nudging and boosting— that enlist these cues to redesign online environments for informed and autonomous choice.

Suggested Citation

  • Philipp Lorenz-Spreen & Stephan Lewandowsky & Cass R. Sunstein & Ralph Hertwig, 2020. "How behavioural sciences can promote truth, autonomy and democratic discourse online," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 4(11), pages 1102-1109, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nathum:v:4:y:2020:i:11:d:10.1038_s41562-020-0889-7
    DOI: 10.1038/s41562-020-0889-7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-020-0889-7
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41562-020-0889-7?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nazanin Alipourfard & Buddhika Nettasinghe & Andrés Abeliuk & Vikram Krishnamurthy & Kristina Lerman, 2020. "Friendship paradox biases perceptions in directed networks," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 11(1), pages 1-9, December.
    2. Snehasish Banerjee & Alton Y. K. Chua & Jung-Jae Kim, 2017. "Don't be deceived: Using linguistic analysis to learn how to discern online review authenticity," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 68(6), pages 1525-1538, June.
    3. Phillips, Nathaniel D. & Neth, Hansjörg & Woike, Jan K. & Gaissmaier, Wolfgang, 2017. "FFTrees: A toolbox to create, visualize, and evaluate fast-and-frugal decision trees," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 12(4), pages 344-368.
    4. Annamaria Lusardi & Olivia S. Mitchell, 2014. "The Economic Importance of Financial Literacy: Theory and Evidence," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 52(1), pages 5-44, March.
    5. Dietram A. Scheufele & Nicole M. Krause, 2019. "Science audiences, misinformation, and fake news," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 116(16), pages 7662-7669, April.
    6. Z. Leviston & I. Walker & S. Morwinski, 2013. "Your opinion on climate change might not be as common as you think," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 3(4), pages 334-337, April.
    7. Philipp Lorenz-Spreen & Bjarke Mørch Mønsted & Philipp Hövel & Sune Lehmann, 2019. "Accelerating dynamics of collective attention," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 10(1), pages 1-9, December.
    8. repec:cup:judgdm:v:12:y:2017:i:4:p:344-368 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Hertwig, Ralph, 2017. "When to consider boosting: some rules for policy-makers," Behavioural Public Policy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 1(2), pages 143-161, November.
    10. John H. Evans, 2003. "Have Americans' Attitudes Become More Polarized?—An Update," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 84(1), pages 71-90, March.
    11. Heidi J. Larson, 2018. "The biggest pandemic risk? Viral misinformation," Nature, Nature, vol. 562(7727), pages 309-309, October.
    12. I. Ooijen & Helena U. Vrabec, 2019. "Does the GDPR Enhance Consumers’ Control over Personal Data? An Analysis from a Behavioural Perspective," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 42(1), pages 91-107, March.
    13. Andrew M. Guess & Brendan Nyhan & Jason Reifler, 2020. "Exposure to untrustworthy websites in the 2016 US election," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 4(5), pages 472-480, May.
    14. Jon Roozenbeek & Sander Linden, 2019. "Fake news game confers psychological resistance against online misinformation," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 5(1), pages 1-10, December.
    15. Duncan J. Watts, 2017. "Should social science be more solution-oriented?," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 1(1), pages 1-5, January.
    16. Alexander J. Stewart & Mohsen Mosleh & Marina Diakonova & Antonio A. Arechar & David G. Rand & Joshua B. Plotkin, 2019. "Information gerrymandering and undemocratic decisions," Nature, Nature, vol. 573(7772), pages 117-121, September.
    17. Eun Lee & Fariba Karimi & Claudia Wagner & Hang-Hyun Jo & Markus Strohmaier & Mirta Galesic, 2019. "Homophily and minority-group size explain perception biases in social networks," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 3(10), pages 1078-1087, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Fulian Yin & Meiqi Ji & Zhongliang Yang & Zhaoliang Wu & Xinyu Xia & Tongtong Xing & Yuwei She & Zhiwen Hu, 2022. "Exploring the determinants of global vaccination campaigns to combat COVID-19," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-13, December.
    2. Vrain, E. & Wilson, C. & Kerr, L. & Wilson, M., 2022. "Social influence in the adoption of digital consumer innovations for climate change," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    3. Helen X. H. Bao & Yuna Song, 2022. "Improving Food Security through Entomophagy: Can Behavioural Interventions Influence Consumer Preference for Edible Insects?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-19, March.
    4. Arora, Swapan Deep & Singh, Guninder Pal & Chakraborty, Anirban & Maity, Moutusy, 2022. "Polarization and social media: A systematic review and research agenda," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).
    5. Luca A. Panzone & Natasha Auch & Daniel John Zizzo, 2024. "Nudging the Food Basket Green: The Effects of Commitment and Badges on the Carbon Footprint of Food Shopping," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 87(1), pages 89-133, January.
    6. Iulia Maria COTOVANU TOADER, 2021. "Pandemic drive for synchronized smart political atmospheres," Smart Cities International Conference (SCIC) Proceedings, Smart-EDU Hub, vol. 9, pages 191-202, November.
    7. Drews, Stefan & Savin, Ivan & van den Bergh, Jeroen C.J.M., 2022. "Biased perceptions of other people's attitudes to carbon taxation," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    8. Minh Ly Duc & Lukas Hlavaty & Petr Bilik & Radek Martinek, 2023. "Harmonic Mitigation Using Meta-Heuristic Optimization for Shunt Adaptive Power Filters: A Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(10), pages 1-55, May.
    9. Garrett Morrow & Briony Swire‐Thompson & Jessica Montgomery Polny & Matthew Kopec & John P. Wihbey, 2022. "The emerging science of content labeling: Contextualizing social media content moderation," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 73(10), pages 1365-1386, October.
    10. Iulia Maria COÈšOVANU TOADER, 2021. "Sincronizarea atmosferelor smart," Smart Cities International Conference (SCIC) Proceedings, Smart-EDU Hub, vol. 9, pages 203-214, November.
    11. Chuhan Wu & Fangzhao Wu & Lingjuan Lyu & Tao Qi & Yongfeng Huang & Xing Xie, 2022. "A federated graph neural network framework for privacy-preserving personalization," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-10, December.
    12. Iulia-Maria COTOVANU TOADER, 2020. "The tale of two smart cities," Smart Cities International Conference (SCIC) Proceedings, Smart-EDU Hub, vol. 8, pages 195-214, November.
    13. Folco Panizza & Piero Ronzani & Tiffany Morisseau & Simone Mattavelli & Carlo Martini, 2023. "How do online users respond to crowdsourced fact-checking?," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-11, December.
    14. Tobia Spampatti & Ulf J. J. Hahnel & Evelina Trutnevyte & Tobias Brosch, 2024. "Psychological inoculation strategies to fight climate disinformation across 12 countries," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 8(2), pages 380-398, February.
    15. Meir Russ, 2021. "Knowledge Management for Sustainable Development in the Era of Continuously Accelerating Technological Revolutions: A Framework and Models," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-32, March.
    16. Piergiuseppe Fortunato & Marco Pecoraro, 2022. "Social media, education, and the rise of populist Euroscepticism," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-13, December.
    17. Stephan Leitner & Bartosz Gula & Dietmar Jannach & Ulrike Krieg-Holz & Friederike Wall, 2021. "Understanding the dynamics emerging from infodemics: a call to action for interdisciplinary research," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 1(1), pages 1-18, January.
    18. Mills, Stuart, 2022. "Finding the ‘nudge’ in hypernudge," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    19. Shuyuan Mary Ho & Xiuwen Liu & Md Shamim Seraj & Sabrina Dickey, 2023. "Social distance “nudge:” a context aware mHealth intervention in response to COVID pandemics," Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, Springer, vol. 29(3), pages 391-414, September.
    20. Anastasia Kozyreva & Philipp Lorenz-Spreen & Ralph Hertwig & Stephan Lewandowsky & Stefan M. Herzog, 2021. "Public attitudes towards algorithmic personalization and use of personal data online: evidence from Germany, Great Britain, and the United States," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 8(1), pages 1-11, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Danielle Caled & Mário J. Silva, 2022. "Digital media and misinformation: An outlook on multidisciplinary strategies against manipulation," Journal of Computational Social Science, Springer, vol. 5(1), pages 123-159, May.
    2. Alberto Barchetti & Emma Neybert & Susan Powell Mantel & Frank R. Kardes, 2022. "The Half-Truth Effect and Its Implications for Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-19, June.
    3. Andreas Bjerre-Nielsen & Martin Benedikt Busch, 2022. "Statistical inference in social networks: how sampling bias and uncertainty shape decisions," Papers 2205.13046, arXiv.org.
    4. Insoo Cho & Peter F. Orazem, 2021. "How endogenous risk preferences and sample selection affect analysis of firm survival," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 56(4), pages 1309-1332, April.
    5. John Y. Campbell, 2016. "Restoring Rational Choice: The Challenge of Consumer Financial Regulation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(5), pages 1-30, May.
    6. Bottazzi, Laura & Lusardi, Annamaria, 2021. "Stereotypes in financial literacy: Evidence from PISA," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    7. Goldfayn-Frank, Olga & Wohlfart, Johannes, 2018. "How do consumers adapt to a new environment in their economic forecasting? Evidence from the German reunification," IMFS Working Paper Series 129, Goethe University Frankfurt, Institute for Monetary and Financial Stability (IMFS).
    8. Kovács Erzsébet & Vaskövi Ágnes, 2020. "Pension Pessimism in the Young Generation: Basics or Instincts to Blame?," Business Systems Research, Sciendo, vol. 11(2), pages 117-131, October.
    9. Mitchell, O.S. & Piggott, J., 2016. "Workplace-Linked Pensions for an Aging Demographic," Handbook of the Economics of Population Aging, in: Piggott, John & Woodland, Alan (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Population Aging, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 0, pages 865-904, Elsevier.
    10. Bomi Nomlala, 2021. "Financial Socialisation of Accounting Students in South Africa," International Journal of Finance & Banking Studies, Center for the Strategic Studies in Business and Finance, vol. 10(2), pages 01-15, April.
    11. M. Martin Boyer & Philippe De Donder & Claude Denys Fluet & Marie-Louise Leroux & Pierre-Carl Michaud, 2018. "A Canadian Parlor Room-Type Approach to the Long-Term Care Insurance Puzzle," CIRANO Working Papers 2018s-13, CIRANO.
    12. Sergio Longobardi & Margherita Maria Pagliuca & Andrea Regoli, 2018. "Can problem-solving attitudes explain the gender gap in financial literacy? Evidence from Italian students’ data," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 52(4), pages 1677-1705, July.
    13. Carlos Santiago Guzmán Gutiérrez, 2019. "Sistema Pensional Colombiano: implicaciones de la educación financiera sobre las decisiones de traslado de los individuos," Documentos CEDE 17677, Universidad de los Andes, Facultad de Economía, CEDE.
    14. Cupák, Andrej & Fessler, Pirmin & Hsu, Joanne W. & Paradowski, Piotr R., 2022. "Investor confidence and high financial literacy jointly shape investments in risky assets," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    15. Yusuf, Fatima & Yousaf, Amna & Saeed, Abubakr, 2018. "Rethinking agency theory in developing countries: A case study of Pakistan," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 42(4), pages 281-292.
    16. Di Giannatale, Sonia & Roa, María José, 2016. "Formal Saving in Developing Economies: Barriers, Interventions, and Effects," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 8107, Inter-American Development Bank.
    17. Aida El-Far Cardo & Thomas Kraus & Andrea Kaifie, 2021. "Factors That Shape People’s Attitudes towards the COVID-19 Pandemic in Germany—The Influence of MEDIA, Politics and Personal Characteristics," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(15), pages 1-14, July.
    18. Felici, Marco & Kenny, Geoff & Friz, Roberta, 2023. "Consumer savings behaviour at low and negative interest rates," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    19. Claudio Michelacci & Luigi Paciello, 2020. "Ambiguous Policy Announcements," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 87(5), pages 2356-2398.
    20. Singh, Nirvikar, 2018. "Financial Inclusion: Concepts, Issues and Policies for India," MPRA Paper 91047, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nathum:v:4:y:2020:i:11:d:10.1038_s41562-020-0889-7. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.