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Digital Nudging and Cookie Rejection: An Experiment

Author

Listed:
  • Luca Congiu

    (Tor Vergata University of Rome
    University of Insubria)

  • Ivan Moscati

    (University of Insubria
    Baffi Carefin, Bocconi University)

  • Matteo Scacchi

    (University of Insubria)

Abstract

When browsing the Internet, web users tend to accept all cookies even though this may threaten their online security. We apply a salience nudge and a framing nudge to the design of a cookie banner and test their individual and combined effectiveness in fostering rejection of unnecessary cookies in an online experiment (N = 358). The salience nudge makes the rejection button more visible, and the framing nudge phrases button labels as negations. Compared to the control with no nudges, which elicited a rejection rate of 27%, the salience nudge increased rejection rate by 7 percentage points (but p = 0.305), the framing nudge by 18 pp (p = 0.009), and the combination of the two by 53 pp (p

Suggested Citation

  • Luca Congiu & Ivan Moscati & Matteo Scacchi, 2025. "Digital Nudging and Cookie Rejection: An Experiment," Italian Economic Journal: A Continuation of Rivista Italiana degli Economisti and Giornale degli Economisti, Springer;Società Italiana degli Economisti (Italian Economic Association), vol. 11(1), pages 431-458, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:italej:v:11:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1007_s40797-024-00268-4
    DOI: 10.1007/s40797-024-00268-4
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Clulow, Valerie & Reimers, Vaughan, 2009. "How do consumers define retail centre convenience?," Australasian marketing journal, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 125-132.
    2. Congiu, Luca & Moscati, Ivan, 2022. "A review of nudges: definitions, justifications, effectiveness," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 115134, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    3. Tanjim Hossain & John A. List, 2012. "The Behavioralist Visits the Factory: Increasing Productivity Using Simple Framing Manipulations," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 58(12), pages 2151-2167, December.
    4. Shuguang Yao & Yanhua Wang & Jiaxi Peng & Lei Song, 2018. "The framing effect of negation frames," Journal of Risk Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(6), pages 800-808, June.
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    6. James Andreoni, 1995. "Warm-Glow versus Cold-Prickle: The Effects of Positive and Negative Framing on Cooperation in Experiments," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 110(1), pages 1-21.
    7. Cooper, David J., 2014. "A Note on Deception in Economic Experiments," Journal of Wine Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 9(02), pages 111-114, August.
    8. Gary Charness & Anya Samek & Jeroen Ven, 2022. "What is considered deception in experimental economics?," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 25(2), pages 385-412, April.
    9. Daniel L. Chen & Martin Schonger & Chris Wickens, 2016. "oTree - An open-source platform for laboratory, online, and field experiments," Post-Print hal-04315125, HAL.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Cookies; Online Security; Nudge; Salience; Framing; Personality traits;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D18 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Protection
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • M31 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Marketing and Advertising - - - Marketing
    • M38 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Marketing and Advertising - - - Government Policy and Regulation

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