IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ratsoc/v32y2020i3p313-333.html

Do Koreans like being nudged? Survey evidence for the contextuality of behavioral public policy

Author

Listed:
  • David Oliver Kasdan

Abstract

This study explores the nuances of South Koreans’ approval for nudge policies by replicating a survey conducted in global nudge research, and then extending the analysis and discussion with greater detail about the context. The traditions, culture, and development of Korea have contributed to a distinct behavioral bias profile that must be integrated into approaches for nudge policy design and implementation. This article proposes the qualities of such a profile from the survey results, as well as the prospect that Koreans are more receptive to information nudges that engage analytic reflection. The findings show significantly lower nudge policy approval rates for Koreans in contrast to Americans and other Western countries. This serves to support previous calls for further research about the generalizability of nudge approaches by contributing evidence to the importance of context for identifying and leveraging behavioral biases in the application of policy. The research offers insights into the Korean context that may be used for nudge policies in Korea and other Eastern contexts.

Suggested Citation

  • David Oliver Kasdan, 2020. "Do Koreans like being nudged? Survey evidence for the contextuality of behavioral public policy," Rationality and Society, , vol. 32(3), pages 313-333, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ratsoc:v:32:y:2020:i:3:p:313-333
    DOI: 10.1177/1043463120937832
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1043463120937832
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/1043463120937832?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lucia A. Reisch & Cass R. Sunstein, 2016. "Do Europeans like nudges?," Judgment and Decision Making, Society for Judgment and Decision Making, vol. 11(4), pages 310-325, July.
    2. Marc Oliver Rieger & Mei Wang & Thorsten Hens, 2015. "Risk Preferences Around the World," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 61(3), pages 637-648, March.
    3. Janice Y. Jung & Barbara A. Mellers, 2016. "American attitudes toward nudges," Judgment and Decision Making, Society for Judgment and Decision Making, vol. 11(1), pages 62-74, January.
    4. Cass R. Sunstein & Lucia A. Reisch & Julius Rauber, 2018. "A worldwide consensus on nudging? Not quite, but almost," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 12(1), pages 3-22, March.
    5. Cass R. Sunstein, 2018. "Misconceptions about nudges," Journal of Behavioral Economics for Policy, Society for the Advancement of Behavioral Economics (SABE), vol. 2(1), pages 61-67, March.
    6. Reisch, Lucia A. & Sunstein, Cass R., 2016. "Do Europeans like nudges?," Judgment and Decision Making, Cambridge University Press, vol. 11(4), pages 310-325, July.
    7. Liu, Elaine M. & Meng, Juanjuan & Wang, Joseph Tao-yi, 2014. "Confucianism and preferences: Evidence from lab experiments in Taiwan and China," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 106-122.
    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. Hiroshi Murayama & Yusuke Takagi & Hirokazu Tsuda & Yuri Kato, 2023. "Applying Nudge to Public Health Policy: Practical Examples and Tips for Designing Nudge Interventions," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(5), pages 1-11, February.
    2. Luca Congiu & Ivan Moscati, 2022. "A review of nudges: Definitions, justifications, effectiveness," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(1), pages 188-213, February.
    3. Brockinton, Amanda & Salnitri, Mattia & Kooner-Evans, Francesca & McAlaney, John & Thompson, Shelley, 2025. "An exploratory study on the human component using a cultural model to define open research topics for secure socio-technical systems," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).

    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. Mark Harcourt & Gregor Gall & Margaret Wilson & Korey Rubenstein & Sudong Shang, 2022. "Public support for a union default: Predicting factors and implications for public policy," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 43(3), pages 1095-1118, August.
    2. Bruns, Hendrik & Perino, Grischa, 2023. "The role of autonomy and reactance for nudging — Experimentally comparing defaults to recommendations and mandates," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    3. Luca Congiu & Ivan Moscati, 2022. "A review of nudges: Definitions, justifications, effectiveness," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(1), pages 188-213, February.
    4. Carlsson, Fredrik & Johansson-Stenman, Olof & Kataria, Mitesh, 2024. "How Much Liberty Should We Have? Citizens versus Experts on Regulating Externalities and Internalities," Working Papers in Economics 841, University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics.
    5. Linder, Noah & Bergquist, Magnus & Bjälkebring, Pär & Jonell, Malin, 2025. "(Un)acceptable protein shift: Consumer attitudes toward retail-led interventions promoting sustainable diets," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    6. Bartling, Björn & Cappelen, Alexander & Hermes, Henning & Skivenes, Marit & Tungodden, Bertil, 2023. "Free to Fail? Paternalistic Preferences in the United States," CEPR Discussion Papers 18156, Centre for Economic Policy Research.
    7. Björn Bartling & Krishna Srinivasan, 2025. "Paternalistic interventions: determinants of demand and supply," ECON - Working Papers 469, Department of Economics - University of Zurich.
    8. Ouvrard, Benjamin & Abildtrup, Jens & Stenger, Anne, 2020. "Nudging Acceptability for Wood Ash Recycling in Forests: A Choice Experiment," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    9. Björn Bartling & Krishna Srinivasan, 2025. "Paternalistic Interventions: Determinants of Demand and Supply," CESifo Working Paper Series 11886, CESifo.
    10. Cadario, Romain & Chandon, Pierre, 2019. "Viewpoint: Effectiveness or consumer acceptance? Tradeoffs in selecting healthy eating nudges," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 1-6.
    11. Mark Harcourt & Gregor Gall & Margaret Wilson, 2024. "Employee beliefs about the consequences of a union default: Implications for support and intention to remain in union membership," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 45(4), pages 1272-1293, November.
    12. Alempaki, Despoina & Isoni, Andrea & Read, Daniel, 2023. "Tainted nudge," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    13. Tikotsky, Ariel & Pe'er, Eyal & Feldman, Yuval, 2020. "Which nudges do businesses like? Managers’ attitudes towards nudges directed at their business or at their customers," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 170(C), pages 43-51.
    14. Reisch, Lucia A. & Sunstein, Cass R. & Gwozdz, Wencke, 2017. "Viewpoint: Beyond carrots and sticks: Europeans support health nudges," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 1-10.
    15. Nikil Mukerji & Adriano Mannino, 2023. "Nudge Me If You Can! Why Order Ethicists Should Embrace the Nudge Approach," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 186(2), pages 309-324, August.
    16. Eyal Pe’er & Yuval Feldman & Eyal Gamliel & Limor Sahar & Ariel Tikotsky & Nurit Hod & Hilla Schupak, 2019. "Do minorities like nudges? The role of group norms in attitudes towards behavioral policy," Judgment and Decision Making, Society for Judgment and Decision Making, vol. 14(1), pages 40-50, January.
    17. Rafi M. M. I. Chowdhury, 2022. "The ethics of nudging: Using moral foundations theory to understand consumers' approval of nudges," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(2), pages 703-742, June.
    18. D. O. Kasdan, 2019. "Cass R. Sunstein and Lucia A. Reisch: Trusting Nudges," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 42(2), pages 325-328, June.
    19. Takuro Uehara & Ryo Sakurai, 2021. "Have Sustainable Development Goal Depictions Functioned as a Nudge for the Younger Generation before and during the COVID-19 Outbreak?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-18, February.
    20. Giorgos Meramveliotakis & Manolis Manioudis, 2024. "Default Nudge and Street Lightning Conservation: Towards a Policy Proposal for the Current Energy Crisis," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 15(2), pages 9228-9237, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    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:sae:ratsoc:v:32:y:2020:i:3:p:313-333. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.