The Confirmation Nudge: Prompts to Change or Confirm Initial Preferences Steer Consumer Choice
通过实地和实验室实验，发现确认助推（询问消费者是否确认或改变初始选择）能显著影响选择，如增加年度订阅选择，但也可能因增加步骤而减少原计划购买，其效果受选项吸引力和消费者受益程度影响。
Abstract Across two field experiments and several preregistered lab experiments, we demonstrate that confirmation nudges, which ask consumers whether they would like to confirm or change their initial choice, impact choice. First, consumers navigating a subscription company’s smartphone app were randomized to a control or confirmation nudge condition, which asked them to either confirm their initial choice or switch to an annual subscription. Confirmation nudges increased subscribers’ choice of the annual subscription by over 8 percentage points—an effect size similar to default effects tested by the same company. In experiment 2, conducted by a jewelry retailer, confirmation nudges had countervailing effects, increasing purchases of a nudged service plan add-on but decreasing originally planned jewelry purchases likely because it added a step and thus frictions to the purchase process. Confirmation nudges had larger effects when nudged options were desirable and among consumers who would benefit from the nudge (experiments 3 and 4). However, they were perceived as more manipulative than comparison conditions (experiment 5). We suggest that confirmation nudges undo tendencies to focus on initially preferred options, shifting attention toward alternatives relative to control conditions. Consistent with this, confirmation nudges were especially effective when the wording of the confirmation prompt focused on the “switch” option.