PPE Seminar | Mollie Gerver (KCL): "Do you want to be nudged?"

Abstract:

Nudges are a method of encouraging certain actions without creating new incentives, sanctions, misinformation, or coercion. For example, charities often nudge donors into donating more money by placing several donation sums on their websites, with one sum set as the default, hoping to encourage people to select this sum over alternatives. Similarly, government agencies sometimes automatically sign employees up to a pension scheme which they can opt-out of, encouraging more people to sign up for the pension. These and other nudges are touted as encouraging prudential and pro-social actions without undermining autonomy. However, some claim nudges do undermine autonomy by being manipulative, and/or discouraging people from thinking too deeply about what they want. In this article we propose a novel way of ensuring nudges protectautonomy: individuals can be asked if they consent to being nudged, and only nudged if they do. This gives them control over whether they are nudged, and needn’t reduce the nudge’s effectiveness. To show that the latter claim is true, we draw upon a novel experimental survey with 8,125 UK subjects. We find that asking people if they consent to being nudged, and then giving a default sum only to those who consent, has no impact on donations raised compared to not asking for consent and nudging everyone. Importantly, we find that when individuals are only nudged if they consent beforehand, they are happier with how they were treated afterwards, as compared to those whose consent was not requested beforehand. Based on these findings, we argue that there are strong reasons to only implement consensual nudges. 

The Institute of Philosophy hosts a regular workshop series entitled ‘The Practical, the Political, and the Ethical’.
The series was created in 2015 by Véronique Munoz-Dardé (UCL) and Hallvard Lillehammer (Birkbeck) in order to discuss work in progress from visiting speakers. This year the series is convened by Elise Woodard (KCL) and Michael Hannon (Nottingham). Talks are normally 45 minutes (no pre-circulation of the paper), followed by discussion. All are welcome. 

The Institute of Philosophy hosts a regular workshop series entitled ‘The Practical, the Political, and the Ethical’.
The series was created in 2015 by Véronique Munoz-Dardé (UCL) and Hallvard Lillehammer (Birkbeck) in order to discuss work in progress from visiting speakers. This year the series is convened by Elise Woodard (KCL) and Michael Hannon (Nottingham). Talks are normally 45 minutes (no pre-circulation of the paper), followed by discussion. All are welcome. 

The Institute of Philosophy hosts a regular workshop series entitled ‘The Practical, the Political, and the Ethical’.
The series was created in 2015 by Véronique Munoz-Dardé (UCL) and Hallvard Lillehammer (Birkbeck) in order to discuss work in progress from visiting speakers. This year the series is convened by Elise Woodard (KCL) and Michael Hannon (Nottingham). Talks are normally 45 minutes (no pre-circulation of the paper), followed by discussion. All are welcome. 

The Institute of Philosophy hosts a regular workshop series entitled ‘The Practical, the Political, and the Ethical’.
The series was created in 2015 by Véronique Munoz-Dardé (UCL) and Hallvard Lillehammer (Birkbeck) in order to discuss work in progress from visiting speakers. This year the series is convened by Elise Woodard (KCL) and Michael Hannon (Nottingham). Talks are normally 45 minutes (no pre-circulation of the paper), followed by discussion. All are welcome.