The DOI matches its Crossref record; 13 of the 13 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Choice Without Awareness: Ethical and Policy Implications of Defaults
Abstract
Defaults have such powerful and pervasive effects on consumer behavior that they could be considered “hidden persuaders” in some settings. Ignoring defaults is not a sound option for marketers or consumer policy makers. The authors identify three theoretical causes of default effects—implied endorsement, cognitive biases, and effort—to guide thought on the appropriate marketer and policy maker responses to the issues posed for consumer welfare and consumer autonomy, including proposals for benign “nudges” of behavior. Defaults can be a preferred form of decision architecture; that is, other nonconscious influences on choice and an absence of established preferences can mean that active choice is not always the better alternative. The authors propose “smart defaults” as welfare-enhancing and market-oriented alternatives to the current practice of generally ignoring default effects. Their analysis highlights the importance of considering the process as well as the outcomes of consumer decision making and taking responsibility for consumers' mistakes arising from misuse of defaults. The authors conclude by reflecting on the ethical and policy implications of techniques that influence consumer choice without awareness.
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Cites
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“We briefly describe these mechanisms in the following subsections.”
BackgroundReluctance to vaccinate: Omission bias and ambiguity
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Defaults, Framing and Privacy: Why Opting In-Opting Out1
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Cited by
Szaszi, B., Palinkas, A., Palfi, B., Szollosi, A., & Aczel, B. (2018) · Journal of Behavioral Decision Making · doi:10.1002/bdm.2035 · Cited by 322
van Ooijen, I., & Vrabec, H. U. (2019) · Journal of Consumer Policy · doi:10.1007/s10603-018-9399-7 · Cited by 180
Moralities in food and health research
Askegaard, S., Ordabayeva, N., Chandon, P., Cheung, T., Chytkova, Z., Cornil, Y., Corus, C., Edell, J. A., Mathras, D., Junghans, A. F., et al. (2014) · Journal of Marketing Management · doi:10.1080/0267257x.2014.959034 · Cited by 93
Leadership selection: Can changing the default break the glass ceiling?
Erkal, N., Gangadharan, L., & Xiao, E. (2022) · The Leadership Quarterly · doi:10.1016/j.leaqua.2021.101563 · Cited by 54
How asynchronous video interviews are used in practice: A study of an Australian‐based AVI vendor
Dunlop, P. D., Holtrop, D., & Wee, S. (2022) · International Journal of Selection and Assessment · doi:10.1111/ijsa.12372 · Cited by 46
Metadata
- Authors
- Smith, N. C., Goldstein, D. G., & Johnson, E. J.
- Venue
- Journal of Public Policy & Marketing
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2013-10
- Volume
- 32
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 159-172
- ISSN
- 0743-9156 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2149542608
- Cited by
- 258
- References
- 13
- FWCI
- 9.64
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
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Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.
