Nudges for all?

: the effect of power on the efficiency of nudges

Abstract

Every day, individuals are faced with thousands of decisions, which can have a small or a large impact in their and others lives. Contrary to the Homo-Economicus, humans behave irrationally and do not always use all the information needed to take a decision having in mind their best interest. Hence, institutions and policy makers often try to steer individuals in specific direction for better outcomes. This is particularly important for high-power individuals, whose cognitive tendencies often impair decision making, and who often decide for others, impacting many with a single decision. However, high power people are not always happy to take in advice from others and seem to like to make their own decisions. A possible solution is to use “nudges”, which are cheap and simple interventions to steer people in a specific direction while conserving their freedom of choice. This thesis studies how power effects the efficiency of a nudge. As high-power individuals are more likely to act in an automatic manner, by default, it is proposed that nudges promoting System 1 are more likely to work well on high-power than other individuals. Yet, the findings did not support the hypothesis, as there were no differences based on power. By observing the relationship between power and nudging, this research enhances the power literature and fulfils a current gap in the nudging literature.

Date of Award	27 Apr 2021
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Filipa de Almeida (Supervisor)