Impact of Nudge and Sludge in Policy Interventions: A Survey of Behavioral Influences under the Biden Administration
Description
Examined conservatives’ responses to interventions explicitly attributed to the Biden administration. Unlike Experiment 1, which inferred value incongruence from topic selection, Experiment 2 made ideological conflict explicit by associating all interventions—focused on neutral topics like reducing plastic usage and minimizing electricity consumption—with the Biden administration. This design aimed to provoke reactance among decisive conservatives. Highly decisive conservatives responded more favorably to sludges when interventions were explicitly associated with the Biden administration, further emphasizing the potential of sludges to engage individuals with strong ideological convictions in polarized settings. Here also, nudges did not show a significant effect, reinforcing the idea that their influence may be constrained in value-incongruent settings.