The Power of Digital Nudge: Moving Towards Public Transportation and Debunking False Beliefs: A Conceptual Framework: An Abstract

Abstract

Global warming is real! Citizens are influenced by public figures, and some tend to believe that this is a myth. They are then far less inclined to adopt eco-friendly behaviors, consequently increasing their carbon footprint. The alarming issue of global warming is becoming irreparable with increase commute by car (Steg 2003). For the individuals to adopt “good” behaviors, it is not appropriate only to debilitate their beliefs but also to help them change their habits by a little help; that said, by a nudge. Previous research has shown the effectiveness of nudges on behaviors (Thaler and Sunstein 2008), this research proposes to use digital nudge as there is a growth in the relevance of nudging in the digital sphere as individuals are taking decisions on the influence of mobile applications or websites (Mirsch et al. 2017). This research examines two choice architectures. First, the feedback nudge – to put the targets in a favorable context so that they incline towards the right decision; it will also assist in knowing the adoption of public transport and more generally modes of public transport. Second, the planning prompts nudge to push them to act (i.e., go beyond the intention of change). The presentation of the social proof in the form of the story without contradicting the worldview of the recipient, the fake news could be debunked. These messages will be broadcasted on a mobile application, allowing personalized content delivered at a convenient time chosen. Other features of the messages like the social norm, will also be studied. A qualitative study and then experiments will make it possible to highlight the effects of a variety of characteristics of digital nudges on the debunking of beliefs, the intention of behavior, and actual behavior. The mediating role of processing fluency will be shown as well as the moderating role of online social support and credibility of the source. We point out three main contributions. First, this research addresses the question of the mechanism of a digital nudge. Second, we signify the combination of social influence and feedback nudge choice architecture for behavior change and debunking. The presentation of the social proof in the form of the story without contradicting the worldview of the recipient, the fake news can be debunked. Third, through this study, we propose that planning prompts nudge can be utilized in closing the intention-behavior gap in the context of mobility-related research. Finally, the disadvantages of Travel feedback programs (TFP’s) that had developed in Japan to increase the use of public transportation (Fujii et al. 2009) have been addressed as TFP’s are expensive to apply, with no theoretical and methodological framework.