Vol.2: Effectiveness of Default Changes
For the COVID-19 vaccination, Joetsu City in Niigata Prefecture employed the “voting place method,” where people go to a pre-designated voting place in an election. In this city, the vaccination went quite smoothly by pre-determining the mass vaccination's date, time, and site for each individual.
Similar results have been observed in overseas cases of influenza vaccination. The vaccination rate became higher with pre-determining the date and time and calling for vaccination on the pre-designated date and time, rather than the conventional method of informing people of multiple dates and times and calling for voluntary reservations.
This effect can be interpreted by following the concept of “default nudge,” which changes the default setting. The default setting in the conventional method is “no vaccination.” People need to refer to their schedule to find a convenient date and time and make an appointment on that date and time.
Although the conventional method may seem to care about people's conditions, it also places a heavy psychological burden on them because of the many procedural steps. Even if people intend to receive vaccinations, they may not be able to make it to their appointments due to this default setting, or they may not be able to receive the vaccinations at the date and time they originally preferred.
If the default setting is changed to a pre-determined date, time, and place, as in Joetsu City, people will have fewer things to consider and less psychological burden. They can change the pre-designated date and time by application and refuse the vaccination itself, thus guaranteeing their freedom of choice, which is an essential condition for the nudge.
If the majority of society does not want to be vaccinated, many doses of the vaccine will be wasted. Many people will refuse the vaccination even if “receive vaccination” is the default setting. Only when the majority intends to be vaccinated will this default change work effectively as a nudge to prevent procrastination of those who wish to be vaccinated and smoothly lead to the realization of their vaccination.
However, even in such cases, to obtain society’s understanding of the policy use of default changes, it is necessary to ensure that those unable to receive vaccinations for personal reasons can avoid the default setting without any burden.
In contexts other than vaccination, the police bureaus in the Kanto and Chubu regions report successful results by changing the default setting on their leave request forms to encourage employees to take leave after the night shift.
*This column is an English translation of a column I wrote for the Nihon Keizai Shimbun (a Newspaper) in Japanese. I have confirmed permission from the Nihon Keizai Shimbun to publicize this translated version.
Similar results have been observed in overseas cases of influenza vaccination. The vaccination rate became higher with pre-determining the date and time and calling for vaccination on the pre-designated date and time, rather than the conventional method of informing people of multiple dates and times and calling for voluntary reservations.
This effect can be interpreted by following the concept of “default nudge,” which changes the default setting. The default setting in the conventional method is “no vaccination.” People need to refer to their schedule to find a convenient date and time and make an appointment on that date and time.
Although the conventional method may seem to care about people's conditions, it also places a heavy psychological burden on them because of the many procedural steps. Even if people intend to receive vaccinations, they may not be able to make it to their appointments due to this default setting, or they may not be able to receive the vaccinations at the date and time they originally preferred.
If the default setting is changed to a pre-determined date, time, and place, as in Joetsu City, people will have fewer things to consider and less psychological burden. They can change the pre-designated date and time by application and refuse the vaccination itself, thus guaranteeing their freedom of choice, which is an essential condition for the nudge.
If the majority of society does not want to be vaccinated, many doses of the vaccine will be wasted. Many people will refuse the vaccination even if “receive vaccination” is the default setting. Only when the majority intends to be vaccinated will this default change work effectively as a nudge to prevent procrastination of those who wish to be vaccinated and smoothly lead to the realization of their vaccination.
However, even in such cases, to obtain society’s understanding of the policy use of default changes, it is necessary to ensure that those unable to receive vaccinations for personal reasons can avoid the default setting without any burden.
In contexts other than vaccination, the police bureaus in the Kanto and Chubu regions report successful results by changing the default setting on their leave request forms to encourage employees to take leave after the night shift.
*This column is an English translation of a column I wrote for the Nihon Keizai Shimbun (a Newspaper) in Japanese. I have confirmed permission from the Nihon Keizai Shimbun to publicize this translated version.