Harnessing the Power of Defaults Now and Forever? The Effects of Mood and Personality

ABSTRACT Opt-in, opt-out, and forced choice are the three policies most frequently used to engage consumers’ willingness to receive e-mail communication. This research examines the effectiveness and the persistence of these policies in engaging consumer consent to receive e-mail communication, while the effects of consumer mood and personality traits are embedded in the research framework. Three experiments served as the vehicle for data collection. Interaction effects between the default policies and consumer mood and personality traits are examined using logit and multiple regression models. Results show that opt-out is more effective than opt-in and forced choice in engaging consumer consent to receive e-mail communication. Interestingly, opt-in is the most effective policy in engaging a more permanent consumer consent. Although negative mood results in a higher consumer consent rate for e-mail notifications, positive mood results in a higher consent rate for future engagement. Higher levels of neuroticism lead to higher willingness to receive e-mail notifications, but higher extraversion leads to higher future engagement. The article contributes to the literature on defaults, mood, and personality traits. The findings advance the theory and have important managerial implications.