Nudges Increase Choosing but Decrease Consuming: Longitudinal Studies of the Decoy, Default, and Compromise Effects

Abstract

Research in marketing, psychology, economics, and decision making has long examined what people choose, when people choose, and why people choose. But almost no research has examined how long people consume their choices. Here, we examined an asymmetry between choosing an option and consuming it. Under the aegis of nudges, we conducted two randomized longitudinal experiments on how long people consumed a choice that was incentivized vis-à-vis a decoy effect, default effect, and compromise effect. We found that these nudges influenced choosing and consuming in opposite directions: Participants were more likely to choose the nudged option; however, they consumed it less compared to participants who chose an identical non-nudged option. Our research thus demonstrates that nudges could lead people to consume a nudged option less after choosing it, illuminating the potential for future research to examine the unexplored area of longitudinal, post-acquisition, post-nudge effects.