The (constrained) Strength of Behavioral Interventions

Abstract: Nations and organizations have become increasingly interested in using interventions or “nudges” to promote personal wellness (e.g., retirement savings) and prosocial behavior (e.g., recycling). Behavioral interventions can powerfully alter behavior, but also frequently fail to produce the intended results. In four online experiments (N = 9,696) and one field experiment (N = 46,490), we test a series of well-validated interventions and demonstrate that the effectiveness of each intervention depends upon its position on the effort-cost continuum, which captures the degree of effort required to perform the behavior. We find evidence that interventions have little to no impact on behavior at the tails of the effort-cost continuum (when performing the behavior is easy or difficult) but can have a substantial impact toward the midpoint. We discuss how policymakers can use knowledge of the effort-cost curve to more effectively target interventions.