IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/trn/utwpce/1902.html

On the Transparency of Nudges: An Experiment

Author

Listed:
  • Sandro Casal

  • Francesco Guala

  • Luigi Mittone

Abstract

We investigate the effects that transparency may have on people’s reactions to a simple nudge. Using an incentivized task and eliminating possible confounds due to strategic reasoning, we test two behavioral predictions: (a) that increasing the quantity and quality of information affects significantly the efficacy of nudges; and (b) that people mind about being nudged and reverse their decisions when the behavioral policy is transparent. Our results indicate that transparency does not necessarily trigger reactance (people in general do not mind being nudged), but the quality and quantity of information can have a significant effect on the efficacy of a behavioral policy.

Suggested Citation

  • Sandro Casal & Francesco Guala & Luigi Mittone, 2019. "On the Transparency of Nudges: An Experiment," CEEL Working Papers 1902, Cognitive and Experimental Economics Laboratory, Department of Economics, University of Trento, Italia.
    • Handle: RePEc:trn:utwpce:1902
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www-ceel.economia.unitn.it/papers/papero19_02.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of 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. Ayala Arad & Ariel Rubinstein, 2018. "The People's Perspective on Libertarian-Paternalistic Policies," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 61(2), pages 311-333.
    3. Hendrik Bruns & Elena Kantorowicz-Reznichenko & Katharina Klement & Marijane Luistro Jonsson & Bilel Rahali, 2018. "Can nudges be transparent and yet effective?," Post-Print hal-01824076, HAL.
    4. Cass R. Sunstein & Richard H. Thaler, 2003. "Libertarian paternalism is not an oxymoron," Conference Series ; [Proceedings], Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, vol. 48(Jun).
    5. Chen, Daniel L. & Schonger, Martin & Wickens, Chris, 2016. "oTree—An open-source platform for laboratory, online, and field experiments," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 9(C), pages 88-97.
    6. Richard H. Thaler & Cass R. Sunstein, 2023. "Libertarian paternalism," Chapters, in: Cass R. Sunstein & Lucia A. Reisch (ed.), Research Handbook on Nudges and Society, chapter 1, pages 10-16, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    7. Paunov, Yavor & Wänke, Michaela & Vogel, Tobias, 2019. "Transparency effects on policy compliance: disclosing how defaults work can enhance their effectiveness," Behavioural Public Policy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 3(2), pages 187-208, November.
    8. Bruns, Hendrik & Kantorowicz-Reznichenko, Elena & Klement, Katharina & Luistro Jonsson, Marijane & Rahali, Bilel, 2018. "Can nudges be transparent and yet effective?," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 41-59.
    9. 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.
    10. Dragos C Petrescu & Gareth J Hollands & Dominique-Laurent Couturier & Yin-Lam Ng & Theresa M Marteau, 2016. "Public Acceptability in the UK and USA of Nudging to Reduce Obesity: The Example of Reducing Sugar-Sweetened Beverages Consumption," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(6), pages 1-18, June.
    11. Ananish Chaudhuri, 2011. "Sustaining cooperation in laboratory public goods experiments: a selective survey of the literature," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 14(1), pages 47-83, March.
    12. Paolo Crosetto & Antonio Filippin, 2013. "The “bomb” risk elicitation task," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 47(1), pages 31-65, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Elena Kantorowicz‐Reznichenko & Jaroslaw Kantorowicz, 2021. "To follow or not to follow the herd? Transparency and social norm nudges," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 74(3), pages 362-377, August.
    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. Bruns, Hendrik & Fillon, Adrien & Maniadis, Zacharias & Paunov, Yavor, 2025. "Comparing transparent and covert nudges: A meta-analysis calling for more diversity in nudge transparency research," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    4. 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).
    5. Hendrik Bruns & Grischa Perino, 2021. "Point at, nudge, or push private provision of a public good?," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 59(3), pages 996-1007, July.
    6. Tobias Schütze & Carsten Spitzer & Philipp C. Wichardt & Philipp Christoph Wichardt, 2023. "Nudging: An Experiment on Transparency, Controlling for Reactance and Decision Time," CESifo Working Paper Series 10599, CESifo.
    7. Comisión Nacional de los Mercados y la Competencia (CNMC), 2025. "Study on behavioural economics for efficient regulation and supervision," Colección Estudios de Mercado E/CNMC/002/23_ENG, Comisión Nacional de los Mercados y la Competencia (CNMC).
    8. Christian König-Kersting & Johannes Lohse & Anna Louisa Merkel, 2020. "Active and Passive Risk-Taking," Working Papers 2020-04, Faculty of Economics and Statistics, Universität Innsbruck.
    9. Barron, Kai & Nurminen, Tuomas, 2020. "Nudging cooperation in public goods provision," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 88, pages 1-1.
    10. Schütze, Tobias & Spitzer, Carsten & Wichardt, Philipp C., 2025. "Nudging: An experiment on transparency, accounting for reactance and response time," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    11. Caso, Gerarda & Sapio, Silvia & Vecchio, Riccardo, 2025. "Low-income citizens’ evaluation of policy interventions to promote healthy food choices," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    12. Florian Spitzer & Kira Abstiens & Sophie Karmasin, 2025. "Integrating behavioural insights in the policy process: on chances and hurdles identified by policy-makers and behavioural scientists," Mind & Society: Cognitive Studies in Economics and Social Sciences, Springer;Fondazione Rosselli, vol. 24(2), pages 621-663, December.
    13. Ivan Mitrouchev & Malte Dold, 2025. "From heuristics and biases to agency," Mind & Society: Cognitive Studies in Economics and Social Sciences, Springer;Fondazione Rosselli, vol. 24(2), pages 489-508, December.
    14. Leonhard Lades & Federica Nova, 2022. "Ethical Considerations when using Behavioural Insights to Reduce Peoples Meat Consumption," Working Papers 202209, Geary Institute, University College Dublin.
    15. Sætra, Henrik Skaug & Mills, Stuart, 2022. "Psychological interference, liberty and technology," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    16. Liu, Xin & Zhao, Ning & Li, Shu & Zheng, Rui, 2022. "Opt-out policy and its improvements promote COVID-19 vaccinations," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 307(C).
    17. Schubert, Christian, 2017. "Green nudges: Do they work? Are they ethical?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 329-342.
    18. Helena Fornwagner & Oliver P. Hauser, 2022. "Climate Action for (My) Children," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 81(1), pages 95-130, January.
    19. Liu, Jia & Sonntag, Axel & Zizzo, Daniel John, 2022. "Information defaults in repeated public good provision," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 197(C), pages 356-369.
    20. Karola Bastini & Rudolf Kerschreiter & Maik Lachmann & Matthias Ziegler & Tim Sawert, 2024. "Encouraging Individual Contributions to Net-Zero Organizations: Effects of Behavioral Policy Interventions and Social Norms," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 192(3), pages 543-560, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • C81 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Data Collection and Data Estimation Methodology; Computer Programs - - - Methodology for Collecting, Estimating, and Organizing Microeconomic Data; Data Access
    • C91 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Individual Behavior
    • D90 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - General
    • Z18 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Public Policy

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:trn:utwpce:1902. 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: Marco Tecilla The email address of this maintainer does not seem to be valid anymore. Please ask Marco Tecilla to update the entry or send us the correct address (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/detreit.html .

    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.