Nudging Techniques: Design, Theoretical Grounds, and Ethical View

Abstract

Nudges are approaches that direct individuals to perform particular courses of action to meet a pre-determined goal, without coercion. Previous literature has explored the design of nudge and its impact on users’ behavior in several domains and contexts. Still, scarce and fragmented knowledge about the design approaches, ethical considerations, and theoretical grounds have been presented by previous literature. Hence, this study aims to investigate the literature through bibliometric analysis and a narrative review of the nudging techniques and their impact on social behavior with an emphasis on the application domains, nudge designs, ethical considerations, and theoretical grounds. Focusing on nudge design and impact, we scan the landscape of the research in the area through bibliometric analysis and narrative review approaches. We searched for papers that included keywords related to nudges from the Scopus database and analyzed them using a bibliometric-based approach. Several diagrams that visualize the terms of the studies, sources, citations, and thematic trends were presented. The research provides several insights for researchers in terms of the design of the nudge, the theoretical grounds, ethical considerations, and the application domains of nudging.