In my previous post on nudging, I discussed a series of critical comments published in PNAS on the meta-analysis demonstrating a substantial average effect of nudging. The key question of interest is whether it makes sense to make a meta-analysis on the effectiveness of nudging and, if so, what the average effect size is. In […]
Tag: nudging
How effective is nudging? #3
In a previous post, I discussed a study by Mertens et al. (2022) showing that the average effect size of nudging is large (i.e., a Cohen’s d of 0.45). In my post, I identified several limitations in the study that led me to conclude that the average effect size presented in the study most likely […]
Experiments and societal challenges
The randomised controlled trial is seen as the gold standard within the social sciences. I do not disagree. I love well-executed experiments with strong causal identification. If two studies, one experimental and one non-experimental, differ in their conclusions, there is no doubt which study I, all else equal, will side with. Most importantly, I often […]
How effective is nudging? #2
In a new study, Mertens et al. (2022) examine the effectiveness of nudging. Specifically, they conduct a meta-analysis of 455 effect sizes from 214 publications. Here is the key finding presented in the abstract: “Our results show that choice architecture interventions overall promote behavior change with a small to medium effect size of Cohen’s d […]
New article in Journal of Hospital Infection: Nudging hand hygiene compliance
In the December issue of Journal of Hospital Infection, you will find our new article titled Nudging hand hygiene compliance: a large-scale field experiment on hospital visitors. Here is the abstract: Background. Hospital-care-associated infections (HCAIs) represent the most frequent adverse event during care delivery, affecting hundreds of millions of patients around the world. Implementing and […]