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Feufel MA, Keller N, Kendel F, Spies CD. Boosting for insight and/or boosting for agency? How to maximize accurate test interpretation with natural frequencies. BMC MEDICAL EDUCATION 2023; 23:75. [PMID: 36747214 PMCID: PMC9903474 DOI: 10.1186/s12909-023-04025-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/16/2021] [Accepted: 01/11/2023] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Many physicians do not know how to accurately interpret test results using Bayes' rule. As a remedy, two kinds of interventions have been shown effective: boosting insight and boosting agency with natural frequencies. To boost insight, test statistics are provided in natural frequencies (rather than conditional probabilities), without instructions on how to use them. To boost agency, a training is provided on how to translate probabilities into natural frequencies and apply them in Bayes' rule. What has not been shown is whether boosting agency is sufficient or if representing test statistics in natural frequencies may additionally boost insight to maximize accurate test interpretation. METHODS We used a pre/posttest design to assess test interpretation accuracy of 577 medical students before and after a training on two Bayesian reasoning tasks, one providing conditional probabilities, the other natural frequencies. The pretest assessed baseline abilities versus the effect of natural frequencies to boost insight. After participants received a training on how to translate conditional probabilities into natural frequencies and how to apply them in Bayes' rule, test interpretation skills were assessed using the same tasks again, comparing the effects of training-induced agency with versus without additionally boosting insight (i.e., test statistics in natural frequencies versus conditional probabilities). RESULTS Compared to the test question formatted in conditional probabilities (34% correct answers), natural frequencies facilitated Bayesian reasoning without training (68%), that is, they increased insight. The training on how to use natural frequencies improved performance for tasks formatted in conditional probabilities (64%). Performance was maximal after training and with test statistics formatted in natural frequencies, that is, with a combination of boosting insight and agency (89%). CONCLUSIONS Natural frequencies should be used to boost insight and agency to maximize effective use of teaching resources. Thus, mandating that test statistics are provided in natural frequencies and adopting short trainings on how to translate conditional probabilities into natural frequencies and how to apply them in Bayes' rule will help to maximize accurate test interpretation. TRIAL REGISTRATION The study was a registered with the German Clinical Trial Registry ( DRKS00008723 ; 06/03/2015).
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Affiliation(s)
- Markus A Feufel
- Division of Ergonomics in the Department of Psychology and Ergonomics (IPA), Technische Universität Berlin, Straße des 17. Juni 135, 10623, Berlin, Germany.
- Simply Rational GmbH, Berlin, Germany.
- Institute for Gender in Medicine at Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Berlin Institute of Health, Berlin, Germany.
- Department of Anesthesiology and Operative Intensive Care Medicine at Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Berlin Institute of Health, Berlin, Germany.
| | - Niklas Keller
- Division of Ergonomics in the Department of Psychology and Ergonomics (IPA), Technische Universität Berlin, Straße des 17. Juni 135, 10623, Berlin, Germany
- Institute for Gender in Medicine at Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Berlin Institute of Health, Berlin, Germany
- Department of Anesthesiology and Operative Intensive Care Medicine at Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Berlin Institute of Health, Berlin, Germany
| | - Friederike Kendel
- Division of Ergonomics in the Department of Psychology and Ergonomics (IPA), Technische Universität Berlin, Straße des 17. Juni 135, 10623, Berlin, Germany
- Institute for Gender in Medicine at Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Berlin Institute of Health, Berlin, Germany
- Department of Anesthesiology and Operative Intensive Care Medicine at Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Berlin Institute of Health, Berlin, Germany
| | - Claudia D Spies
- Division of Ergonomics in the Department of Psychology and Ergonomics (IPA), Technische Universität Berlin, Straße des 17. Juni 135, 10623, Berlin, Germany
- Simply Rational GmbH, Berlin, Germany
- Institute for Gender in Medicine at Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Berlin Institute of Health, Berlin, Germany
- Department of Anesthesiology and Operative Intensive Care Medicine at Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Berlin Institute of Health, Berlin, Germany
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Zhuo S, Ratajczak M, Thornton K, Jones P, Jarchlo AI, Gold N. Testing the impact of overt and covert ordering interventions on sustainable consumption choices: A randomised controlled trial. Appetite 2023; 181:106368. [PMID: 36356913 DOI: 10.1016/j.appet.2022.106368] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/14/2022] [Revised: 10/21/2022] [Accepted: 11/05/2022] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Food products have significant impacts on the environment over their life cycle. We investigated whether displaying products in ascending order of carbon footprint in an online supermarket environment can shift consumer choices towards more sustainable options. We examined whether the effect of the ordering intervention differs when the ordering is overt (information about the ordering is explicit), compared to when it is covert (participants not told about the ordering). We conducted a three-arm parallel-group randomised trial using 1842 online participants from England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Participants shopped for a meal, choosing one product from each of six product categories in a simulated online supermarket. Six products were listed vertically on each product-category page. Products were randomly ordered for the control arm but ordered by carbon footprint in the covert and overt ordering arms. In the overt ordering arm, a statement was displayed at the top of each product page about the ordering of products. The primary outcome was whether one of the three most sustainable products was chosen in each product category. There was no effect of the covert ordering on the probability of choosing more sustainable products compared with the control arm (OR = 0.97, 95% CI 0.88-1.07, p = 0.533). Furthermore, we did not find evidence that the effects of the covert ordering and overt ordering differed (p = 0.594). Within the control condition, products in different positions were chosen with similar frequencies, suggesting that product positioning does not have an impact on choices. This may explain why re-ordering products had no effect. In the overt condition, only 19.5% of people correctly answered that the products were ordered according to sustainability in a follow-up question, suggesting that they didn't notice the statement. Results suggest that choices for grocery products might be too ingrained to be changed by subtle rearrangements of choice architecture like the ordering interventions, and highlight the difficulty of conveying information effectively to consumers in the online grocery shopping environment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shi Zhuo
- Behavioural Practice, Kantar Public UK: 4 Millbank, London, SW1P 3JA, United Kingdom.
| | - Michael Ratajczak
- Behavioural Practice, Kantar Public UK: 4 Millbank, London, SW1P 3JA, United Kingdom; Department of Linguistics and English Language, Lancaster University, LA1 4YL, United Kingdom
| | - Katie Thornton
- Behavioural Practice, Kantar Public UK: 4 Millbank, London, SW1P 3JA, United Kingdom
| | - Phil Jones
- Social Science Team, Food Standards Agency: Clive House, 70 Petty France, London, SW1H 9EX, United Kingdom
| | - Ayla Ibrahimi Jarchlo
- Social Science Team, Food Standards Agency: Clive House, 70 Petty France, London, SW1H 9EX, United Kingdom
| | - Natalie Gold
- Behavioural Practice, Kantar Public UK: 4 Millbank, London, SW1P 3JA, United Kingdom; Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science (CPNSS), London School of Economics, London School of Economics and Political Science, Houghton Street, London, WC2A 2AE, United Kingdom
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Liu X, Zhao N, Zheng R. The effects of default nudges on promoting approval of welfare cuts: An exploration during COVID-19. Front Psychol 2023; 13:1038750. [PMID: 36710739 PMCID: PMC9874108 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1038750] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/07/2022] [Accepted: 12/23/2022] [Indexed: 01/13/2023] Open
Abstract
The global COVID-19 pandemic has created significant financial and operational challenges for some businesses. As a result, temporary welfare benefit reduction may be a tough but future-oriented choice for both employers and employees. The present study examined whether default nudges can be used to promote employees' approval of welfare-cutting policy while avoiding negative attitudes. Two online surveys were conducted during the first pandemic wave in China (February 2020). In the first study (N = 310), the participants were presented with a hypothetical welfare-cutting policy that used either an opt-in approach or an opt-out approach. We aimed to investigate how their approval and attitudes were different between two conditions. The results showed that the employees in the opt-out condition were more likely to accept the welfare-cutting policy than those in the opt-in condition, while participants' attitudes toward the policy employing opt-out approach were as negative as that employing opt-in approach. Study 2 (N = 1,519) involved a replication of Study 1 with two additional improved opt-out approaches (opt-out education and opt-out transparency). Compared with the opt-in approach and standard opt-out approach, the opt-out education approach both increased policy support and improved attitudes toward the welfare-cutting policy. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xin Liu
- Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing, Beijing Municipality, China
- Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Ning Zhao
- Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing, Beijing Municipality, China
- Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Rui Zheng
- Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing, Beijing Municipality, China
- Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
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Paunov Y, Vogel T, Ingendahl M, Wänke M. Transparent by choice: Proactive disclosures increase compliance with digital defaults. Front Psychol 2022; 13:981497. [PMID: 36275255 PMCID: PMC9584644 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.981497] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/29/2022] [Accepted: 09/16/2022] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Default nudges successfully guide choices across multiple domains. Online use cases for defaults range from promoting sustainable purchases to inducing acceptance of behavior tracking scripts, or “cookies.” However, many scholars view defaults as unethical due to the covert ways in which they influence behavior. Hence, opt-outs and other digital decision aids are progressively being regulated in an attempt to make them more transparent. The current practice of transparency boils down to saturating the decision environment with convoluted legal information. This approach might be informed by researchers, who hypothesized that nudges could become less effective once they are clearly laid out: People can retaliate against influence attempts if they are aware of them. A recent line of research has shown that such concerns are unfounded when the default-setters proactively discloses the purpose of the intervention. Yet, it remained unclear whether the effect persists when defaults reflect the current practice of such mandated transparency boils down to the inclusion of information disclosures, containing convoluted legal information. In two empirical studies (N = 364), respondents clearly differentiated proactive from mandated transparency. Moreover, they choose the default option significantly more often when the transparency disclosure was voluntary, rather than mandated. Policy implications and future research directions are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yavor Paunov
- Division of Philosophy, School of Architecture and the Building Environment, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden
- *Correspondence: Yavor Paunov
| | - Tobias Vogel
- Faculty of Social Sciences, Business Psychology Institute, Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences, Darmstadt, Germany
| | - Moritz Ingendahl
- Consumer and Economic Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Michaela Wänke
- Consumer and Economic Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany
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Van Rookhuijzen M, De Vet E, Adriaanse MA. The Effects of Nudges: One-Shot Only? Exploring the Temporal Spillover Effects of a Default Nudge. Front Psychol 2021; 12:683262. [PMID: 34589018 PMCID: PMC8474638 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.683262] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/20/2021] [Accepted: 06/18/2021] [Indexed: 12/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Nudges, such as defaults, are generally found to be effective in guiding immediate behavioural decisions. However, little is known about whether the effect of a nudge can be lasting, meaning that it spills over to subsequent similar choices without the presence of a nudge. In three experiments, we explored the temporal spillover effects of a default nudge. The results of Experiments 1 (N = 1,077) and 2 (N = 1,036) suggest that nudging participants into completing a longer questionnaire affected their decision for the same behaviour a day later without the presence of a nudge. However, nudging participants into a healthier food choice in Experiment 3 (N = 969) did not result in such a temporal spillover effect. The results indicated that participants' change in attitude towards the nudged behaviour may partly explain the temporal spillover effects. These findings suggest that for some, but not all behaviours, default nudges may have the potential to yield temporal spillover effects and warrant a further investigation of boundary conditions and facilitators of the spillover effects of nudges.
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Affiliation(s)
- Merije Van Rookhuijzen
- Consumption and Healthy Lifestyles Group, Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, Netherlands
| | - Emely De Vet
- Consumption and Healthy Lifestyles Group, Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, Netherlands
| | - Marieke A Adriaanse
- Department of Social, Health and Organizational Psychology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands
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