Nudging attitudes toward IT innovations by information provision that serves as a reminder of familial support.

There is concern among the general public that information technology (IT) innovations may make existing jobs redundant. This may be perceived to pose a greater problem to future generations because new technologies, not limited to IT innovations, will be sophisticated in the future. Our previous work revealed that messages reminding people of familial support as a nudge can moderate risk-averse attitudes toward risks that are perceived to threaten future generations, which could be effective for other kinds of risks. Therefore, we conducted a randomized controlled trial to examine the message effects for information provision on IT innovations. The study was conducted via an online questionnaire survey in January 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic, and more than 3,200 samples were collected from respondents aged 20 years or older living in Japan. The treatment groups received basic information supplemented with additional text or additional text and an illustration that highlighted IT innovations as support from previous generations. The control group received only the basic textual information. The effects of the intervention were evaluated by comparing changes in average subjective assessment of IT in the treatment groups with those in the control group. The intervention effect was statistically significant, and the sense of familial support after receiving the intervention messages was significantly increased in the treatment group that viewed the illustration compared with the control group. Additionally, we discuss how each component of the HEXACO personality traits influences responses to the intervention messages. Through a series of surveys, we demonstrated the potential of our framework for a wide variety of applications involving information provision perceived to involve future generations.

Searching for the universality of nudging: A cross-cultural comparison of the information effects of reminding people about familial support.

Nudging is a method for eliciting a desired behavior. One approach to nudging involves information provision. When information presented for this purpose is designed from an evolutionary perspective, it may reveal a deeper level of rationality within human decision-making that might otherwise appear to be irrational. Based on insights from the evolution of altruism, we previously designed a message to remind people of the benefits they have received from the actions of relatives to realize industrialization. We then demonstrated that using this message in Japan was effective at moderating extreme risk-averse attitudes toward air pollution resulting from industrialization. However, the universality of the intervention effect, including whether it could be affected by exogenous factors, was not explored. Therefore, in the present study, we conducted a randomized controlled trial based on an online survey carried out in Japan, Canada, and the US. The intervention was shown to be effective in all the three countries, but the effect size varied according to segment. Although women showed more intervention effects than men in Japan and the US, no significant sex difference was observed in Canada. In terms of personality traits, higher agreeableness significantly contributed to the intervention effects. The influence of the COVID-19 pandemic, which necessitated many lifestyle changes, was found to weaken the intervention effect by increasing the message effect in the control group. We propose that this effect was caused by an increased perception of familial support in everyday life. These results suggest that the nudge message was universally effective, although the effect size might have been affected by cultural factors and social events.

Cross-cultural comparison of nudging effects for environmental protection: A case-study of risk-averse attitudes toward disposable plastics.

Disposable plastics are drawing considerable attention as a source of environmental risk despite their benefits in daily life. Banning the use of disposable plastics could increase other types of risks, which may damage the public good in the long run. Considering the trade-off of the risks and benefits, one way to improve social welfare is to conduct proper recycling and to continue using plastics but limit them to essential use, avoiding an unnecessary ban. A potential barrier to such a policy might be risk-averse attitudes toward actions that are perceived to threaten future generations, which is a well-known phenomenon. We previously designed a framework for information provision using messages that remind individuals about familial support, which had significant effects in multiple countries on increasing positive attitudes toward air pollution caused by industrialization. We hypothesized that this information provision could also be effective for disposable plastic use. Thus, we conducted a randomized controlled trial via online surveys in Japan, Canada, and the US to identify the effects of our designed messages about recycling on increasing positive attitudes toward disposable plastics. The intervention effects were measured by the difference-in-difference method and panel analysis based on linear regression models using the respondents' attributes and personality traits. The effects were consistently correlated with a sense of familial support, with the effect sizes varying according to country (US > Japan > Canada). Attributes that positively contributed to the message being more effective were higher agreeableness, lower Machiavellianism, lower psychopathy, and being a woman. Although personal fear about COVID-19 moderated the message effects, concern about the threats to relatives and family boosted the effects. Although the effect sizes were influenced by external factors, the results suggested that our proposed framework for information provision has the potential to be applied to a wider variety of risk-related topics.