{"title":"Unintended consequences of nudges: Challenges in improving attitudes towards shared e-scooters","authors":"Neel Ocean, Roger Woodman","doi":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102437","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102437","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>As part of a push towards sustainable transportation, there have been several rental e-scooter trials in UK cities. However, vandalism and mistreatment have plagued these schemes, and the adoption of e-scooters remains low. We test the effectiveness of nudges designed to improve attitudes towards shared e-scooters, as well as increase uptake. These are based on three main mechanisms: ownership, social norm messaging, and social status signalling. Using randomised survey experiments, we find that our main ownership and social status nudges are not only ineffective, they worsen attitudes towards shared e-scooters and reduce intended uptake. Injunctive norm messaging did not have any significant impact on stated adoption or willingness to report misuse. Our results highlight the potential consequences of nudges that backfire. We recommend carefully testing proposed nudges within the intended context before implementation, even if they have been successful in a different context, in order to avoid negative consequences.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51637,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics","volume":"119 ","pages":"Article 102437"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-09-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145104976","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Julieth Santamaria, Benjamin Roseth, Florencia Aguirre
{"title":"Does reluctance to share personal data reduce citizen demand for personalized services? Evidence from a survey experiment","authors":"Julieth Santamaria, Benjamin Roseth, Florencia Aguirre","doi":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102447","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102447","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Digital transformation has brought two conflicting trends: a demand for more customized services requiring the use of personal data, and a concern for data protection. Reconciling these trends may influence personalized public service design and adoption strategies. This study explores how to mitigate citizens’ reluctance to share data on personalized public services. Through a survey experiment, we offered two hypothetical services: one educational service (scholarship) and one health-related service (checkup). Respondents were randomly assigned to one of three groups, receiving different information: (i) a summary of service benefits; (ii) a summary of benefits with a data use disclosure; and (iii) a data usage disclosure. The findings show strong baseline interest in personalized services. However, data-use disclosures reduced interest in both services, resulting in declines of 2.7 to 3.0 percentage points. Providing detailed service descriptions increased interest by 5.0 and 6.1 percentage points for education and health services, respectively. This suggests that offering information about the benefits of the service can offset concerns about data privacy. These effects remained consistent among different population groups.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51637,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics","volume":"119 ","pages":"Article 102447"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-09-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145104973","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Peers’ performance feedback: Evidence from soccer penalty shootouts","authors":"David Boto-García , Alessandro Bucciol","doi":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102445","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102445","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper examines the role of peers’ performance feedback on individual productivity in competitive environments. We specifically study the link between individual performance and the past performance of teammates and opposing teams. We use a dataset on all the penalty kicks in knockout stages of World Cup and European Cup competitions in male soccer from 1976 to 2024. We find that the probability of scoring a penalty kick is 17.9 percentage points lower after the opponent team scored a kick but does not change with the outcome of a teammate’s penalty kick. Our evidence supports the notion that individuals’ underperformance when feeling pressure (“choking under pressure”) is primarily driven by feedback on competitors’ performance, rather than by teammates’ performance.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51637,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics","volume":"119 ","pages":"Article 102445"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145104975","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"When leadership messaging fails to encourage producers’ climate action: Field experiments reveal what works in the real world","authors":"Hide-Fumi Yokoo , Takahiro Kubo , Daisuke Kunii , Hiroki Sasaki","doi":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102439","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102439","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>If a government highlighted the first producer to adopt green technology, how would the remaining producers react? This study is the first attempt to evaluate the impact of a message about a climate leader sent by the government to an industry. From among 374 wineries in Japan, half were randomly selected and received a message stating that a certain winery was an early adopter of renewable energy. We then observed whether other wineries participated in webinars on carbon footprint measurement to collect information. We find that this message about climate leadership did not encourage the wineries to participate in the webinar. We interpret this result as reflecting both the strategic decisions of competing wineries and the adverse psychological effects of the message. Further analysis reveals a substantial gap between the stated interest and actual participation, suggesting that self-reported intentions may not reliably predict behavior. Overall, this preregistered field experiment highlights the importance of carefully designing supply-side messaging policies and emphasizes the value of collecting behavioral data in real-world settings to better understand actual responses.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51637,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics","volume":"119 ","pages":"Article 102439"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-09-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145105009","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A narrative review of stress, food choices, and eating behavior: Integrating psychoneuroendocrinology and economic decision-making","authors":"Grant S. Shields , Trey Malone","doi":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102438","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102438","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Perhaps all of us have heard of the term “comfort eating,” and many of us likely engage in the practice occasionally. Despite an intuitive understanding of at least one influence of stress on food choices, the influence of stress has largely gone unconsidered in economic models of food choice and consumer behavior. A growing body of literature, from a wide array of disciplines, has highlighted the importance of considering stress within food choices and consumer behavior. In this review, we survey this growing literature, focusing as narrowly as neurobiological mechanisms linking stress to food choices and as broadly as population-level studies that have examined such influences. Considered together, the literature suggests that even a mild nationwide stressor may alter food consumption patterns. Such effects have nontrivial implications, ranging from production considerations for major snack manufacturers to public health for policymakers. We conclude with recommendations for future work on the subject, including work aiming to understand food choices on a national scale.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51637,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics","volume":"119 ","pages":"Article 102438"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-09-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145105010","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The effect of an increase in unit price on self-set goals in a success-based fee system: Gain and loss domains","authors":"Yasuhiro Nakamoto","doi":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102432","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102432","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In this study, we investigate earnings as a motivational tool on goal setting in economically equivalent gain and loss domains. The main finding indicates that a higher unit price, which corresponds to greater earnings, leads to a higher self-set goal in the Gain treatment but not in the economically equivalent Loss treatment. Using the reference-dependent utility model, one possible explanation is that in the loss domain, the positive effect of an increase in the unit price is weakened due to a corresponding change in the reference point formed by the initial endowment. Additionally, a higher unit price does not lead to greater performance in both the gain and loss domains. Finally, in the gain domain, our experiment finds that low rewards fail to motivate individuals to set goals that closely align with actual performance.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51637,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics","volume":"118 ","pages":"Article 102432"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145003875","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The interaction effect of green advertising appeal and monetary resource perception on consumers’ green purchase intention","authors":"Yuan Ma, Haiying Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102436","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102436","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>With the rapid economic development, environmental problems are expanding. Consumers’ green consumption behavior is significant for carbon reduction. Green advertisements play an indispensable role in stimulating consumers’ green consumption behavior. “What to say” and “to whom” of green advertising is very important. The above questions are discussed from the perspectives of green advertising appeal and consumers’ money resources scarcity. The interaction effects of green advertising appeal (self-interest vs. altruism) and monetary resource perception (scarcity vs. abundance) on consumers’ green purchase intention are tested through experimental design. It is found that consumers who perceive scarcity of monetary resources are more likely to be impressed by the self-interested appeal of green advertisements, while the altruistic appeal of green advertisements has a better persuasive effect on consumers who perceive abundance of monetary resources.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51637,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics","volume":"118 ","pages":"Article 102436"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144987892","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Bargaining over taking from a powerless third party: The role of social preferences","authors":"Haimanti Bhattacharya , Subhasish Dugar , Sumit Sarkar","doi":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102429","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102429","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We experimentally examine how bargainers’ social preferences shape a powerless third party’s well-being when they can appropriate and redistribute its endowment. We explore two sources of social preferences: the feature of our taking game that enables bargainers to unilaterally enforce fairness without the fear of efficiency loss, and four non-monetary interventions aimed at increasing bargainers’ moral costs. We find that fewer than 10 percent of proposals are fair to the third party, yet around 40 percent of bargaining outcomes are fair — mainly because over 80 percent of those fair outcomes result from responders rejecting proposals unfair to the third party. This highlights the importance of unilateral enforcement in promoting fairness. In contrast, non-monetary interventions show minimal impact, suggesting a need for more effective design, possibly involving public visibility or stronger normative framing. Overall, the findings emphasize the role of institutions that enable individuals to ensure fairness for vulnerable parties without sacrificing efficiency.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51637,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics","volume":"119 ","pages":"Article 102429"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-08-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145018393","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Assi Okara , Massimiliano Tani , Linguère Mously Mbaye
{"title":"Rowing with and against the flow: Fatherhood of daughters and perception about women","authors":"Assi Okara , Massimiliano Tani , Linguère Mously Mbaye","doi":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102434","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102434","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We investigate whether having a daughter in a patriarchal society gives fathers a reason to reject prevailing social norms favouring gender discrimination against women. In particular, we develop a utility (rather than behavioural) model to frame the problem and derive hypotheses that can be empirically tested using cross-sectional data from the Senegal 2023 Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS). We find that fathering daughters can positively influence men’s attitudes toward gender equity. In particular, men with daughters exhibit more positive attitudes toward women compared to their peers without daughters. This finding is robust across various sub-samples, particularly regarding violence-related outcome variables.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51637,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics","volume":"118 ","pages":"Article 102434"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-08-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144917419","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Does college education make women less likely to marry? evidence from the Chinese higher education expansion","authors":"Bin Huang , Massimiliano Tani , Lei Xu , Yu Zhu","doi":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102433","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102433","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We study the impact of higher education (HE) on marriage incidence using the 2017 China Household Finance Survey. Taking advantage of the dramatic HE expansion which increased annual college enrolment by 5-fold in the decade starting in 1999, we explore the effect of education on marriage outcomes by instrumenting years of schooling using the interaction of childhood urban <em>hukou</em> status and a set of time dummy and trend variables capturing the exposure to the expansion. This approach is analogous to a difference-in-differences estimator using rural students as a control for any common time trend. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the 2SLS results suggest that increased education induced by the HE expansion leads to higher marriage rates. These positive effects tend to be larger for women living in coastal areas or larger cities. The estimates are robust to alternative specifications, age range, the age cut-offs for childhood <em>hukou</em> status and controls for birth cohort-city specific sex ratios. Our findings imply that the strong negative relationship observed between college education and marriage outcomes for women is likely driven by educational assortative mating due to persistent gender norms in favour of <em>status hypergamy</em>, which prevents the Chinese marriage market from adjusting to the reversed gender gap in HE post-expansion.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51637,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics","volume":"118 ","pages":"Article 102433"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-08-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144911585","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}